


CoSL 03: Outbreak

by Dracophile



Series: Grimm-The Casebook of Sloane Larson [3]
Category: Grimm (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Original Female Character - Freeform, Sloane is here to stay, Zombies, part of a series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-06
Updated: 2018-08-06
Packaged: 2019-06-22 13:17:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 25,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15582828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dracophile/pseuds/Dracophile
Summary: PART 3 OF THE CASEBOOK OF SLOANE LARSON!Sloane has opted to stay and become a detective, much to Nick's chagrin. But she's agreed to play by the rules, and she could be an asset when violent people who look like they've risen from the grave start cropping up around Portland. But can Sloane really put her ways aside and work with wesen to stop this?





	CoSL 03: Outbreak

**Author's Note:**

> Episodes 43-46 redone! Zombies come to Portland just as Sloane decides the to stay. Let's hope it's not a sign.

_Walking Dead_ _\-- >_ _PTZD_

\-----------

After a day of rest at home—and getting things back on track with Juliette—Nick arrived back at work.

“You sure you don’t need more time off man?”

He shook his head, taking a deep breath. “No…I need to act like it’s normal. It still feels like a…weird nightmare, what she did to me through that kiss.”

“Yeah, well, be careful who lays their lips on you from now on.”

Nick smiled as they sat down at their desks. “Duly noted…” He paused in getting ready to start his paperwork when he saw Renard walk to the middle of the bullpen. This usually meant an announcement of some kind was about to be made.

“Everyone, I have an announcement to make.” And he was right again. “We have a new member joining our department, in order to make up for the departure of Detective Sullivan last month. There were some filing issues that resulted in her coming early and being turned away, so I apologize for not mentioning this earlier as I thought she would not be coming until next month from her former precinct in Eureka, California. This also resulted in a bit of a misunderstanding for everyone, including you, Officer Wu.” Wu frowned in confusion, shaking his head at curious glances. He had no idea what Renard was talking about, but Renard just pressed on. “She was on a long time undercover operation that recently wrapped up and is back to doing regular homicide work. A transfer was necessary, and we’re lucky that she’s chosen to join us. Now that we’ve worked the problems, she’s eager to get to work and settle in. Everyone, please welcome our new detective, Sloane Larson.”

Sloane stepped out of his office with a small smile, but Nick felt like he was going to fall backwards. Hank grabbed his arm so maybe he almost did. She glanced at him and smiled a little more but then looked around the room. She was surprisingly affable, maybe even _humble,_ as she spoke. “Hello. It’s, um, nice to meet all of you. I’m going to warn you, I’m not the most sociable person out there, but I’ll certainly do my best to watch your backs and work with all of you as a team player.”

Everyone clapped, some talking amongst themselves about the suddenness of the transfer. Renard held up a hand to get their attention again. “However, due to also losing Detective Hitchcock recently too, we’re short someone to partner her with. So, for now, she will partner with Detectives Burkhardt and Griffin as a three person team.” He gave them a look that dared them to object.

Nick was still unable to really speak so Hank smiled wanly. “Well…with me off my feet, that’ll be handy.”

“Indeed. Another desk will be set up with yours today, so please try to work well together. I expect everyone to be welcoming. That’s all for now,” he headed back for his office while Sloane walked over to them.

Before Nick could try and get a word out, Wu came to her, looking shocked but also concerned. “Detective? Why didn’t you say anything? And why did that license say Sarah Jones?”

“Well, I did say I was in law enforcement,” she said, still smiling. “Like he said, I’d been undercover till recently and forgot I still had that ID, put the wrong one in my wallet in the rush to pack. Then my paperwork was mishandled and I couldn’t get it sorted out between Eureka and here. I wasn’t sure how to explain it without sounding maybe…crazy?”

“Yeah. Crazy,” Nick said. “Here I thought you were just passing through…”

“Didn’t want to get your hopes up, buddy,” she smirked.

Wu laughed a little. “Well, I guess it’s good you two know each other. But man, I feel bad now…we put you in holding.”

Sloane smiled and shook her head. “It’s okay. I was having a rough day and that perp picked a fight and didn’t make it better for anyone. I think he thought I was someone else. I’m used to that after all this time.”

Wu smiled back, glad she was apparently so forgiving. “Well, if you need any help getting settled here in Portland, let me know.”

“Will do. Right now though I think I just need to settle into the job.”

“Right and I’ve got rounds to make. See you all later, and good luck with the new arrangement.” He waved as he headed off.

“Arrangement is one word for it,” Nick said lowly. “What the hell is going on?”

Sloane shrugged, looking as innocent as she could. “Ask your—or I guess, _our_ —captain. He offered me the job.”

“He did what?” Hank asked in surprise.

“Yep.” She pulled open part of her jacket with a smile where a badge much like Nick and Hank’s was attached to her inner pocket. “I get a shiny badge and everything.”

“I don’t understand, when did he offer you this job?” Nick pressed.

 “That time I was in the holding cells because of my car and fighting that wesen—that you were so helpful with—he came and spoke to me about it. Said I had two options: Stay and join the force or leave and never came back. I decided on the former because…well, I’ve got a lot of questions.” Nick suddenly rose and stalked towards the office, opening the door and heading in. Sloane watched and glanced at Hank. “For a Grimm, he does not take surprises well…”

“Eh, when the surprises keep coming, it’s hard to adapt…” Hank said wisely.

Nick closed the door behind him and glared at Renard, who looked up with a cool expression. “You invited her to _stay_?! To join the police force?!”

“Yes,” he said, much more serenely.

“…Don’t you have more to say than that?!” he said, slapping a hand on his desk. He was trying to keep from yelling, but it was a near thing.

“Nick, calm down.”

“Calm down?! You invited a homicidal Grimm to stay here in the city!”

“She’s not homicidal. Not the way you’re thinking.”

“Really? Because she keeps talking about killing wesen, Monroe and Rosalee included.”

“She also willingly, on her own, went to Monroe and Rosalee to talk with them about getting you out from under the Musai’s spell,” he said patiently.

Nick straightened in surprise. “She…she did?”

“Yes. With no threats of violence to them apparently. Or at the very least just a lot of complaining and snark. She didn’t think the “true love” idea would work, but she was there and she heard them out before going to make sure you didn’t kill anyone and end up in jail. Do you recall that much at least?”

Nick was a bit surprised, thinking that over and looking contrite when he did remember Sloane getting between him and Anton to try and keep him from committing murder himself. He hadn’t thanked her for that come to think of it. “…But why did you ask her to stay?”

“Because she’s a Grimm,” he said simply. “Maybe she’s not how you’d like her to be, but she’s not a rampaging psychopath either. She has restraint when she needs it. She’s an asset that would be valuable to have on our side given her years of experience. I think she does have a lot she can teach you.”

Nick was calmer, but still obviously dubious. “Yeah, but it’s working with her that’s hard…How can we even say she’s a detective?”

“I took care of her background. To anyone trying to search her out, it looks like she’s an officer from Eureka California who transferred here to pursue bigger and brighter things when promoted to Detective after more than a year undercover. Under the name Sarah Jones she held take down a drug ring in Sacramento. As for working with her…I believe it’s rather obvious she is used to working and being alone. She wasn’t lying when she said she wasn’t social.”

“And you think that will work out here? That you covered your bases?”

“I think it’s worth a shot and I know the quality of my colleagues’ work. Barring someone from the real precinct coming to Portland and tracking her down, she’s safe. I also think she can learn from you as well in how to adapt to life here.”

Nick frowned and shook his head. He knew Renard had connections and abilities, but he was starting to wonder how far they could reach. “It’s a nice thought I’ve had too, but I’m not sure she can change…”

“Well, wesen have thought for years Grimms would only kill them, not work with them, yet you’re attempting to do so. She has her reasons for being the way she is I’m sure, but whatever they are I just know I would prefer she be an ally than an enemy.”

Nick gave that a thought and then sighed. “I think she might still end up doing more harm than good…but she’s here now. I’ll give it a try.”

“Good.”

Nick nodded and then awkwardly looked at him. “Thank you, by the way, for…helping with the Musai thing.”

Renard smiled. “No need to thank me. I didn’t want to see one of my best detectives behind bars.”

Nick tried to fight a smile, knowing he was trying to be funny, and headed for the door. Outside, Sloane was looking over a computer with Hank.

“So, this is how you kept finding me? By putting a “BOLO” on my car?” she said, sounding both annoyed and a little impressed.

“Yeah. We just said you were a witness in something, nothing that would get you in trouble,” Hank said.

“Still, good to know.” She looked up when Nick came and sat back down. “We okay?” she asked slowly.

“…We’ll try to be okay,” he answered. “But I expect our deal from before to be in effect still.”

Sloane rolled her eyes. “Yeah yeah, Renard had some conditions of his own along the same lines.” She looked around and spoke a little quieter. “I can’t “hunt” without evidence the wesen in question has committed a crime, I gotta run it by you or him—or Hank in a pinch since you’re in the know.”

“Glad to know I’m third choice…” he said coolly.

“No killing unless necessary and try to do it to where I or someone Renard can get a hold of can dispose of the evidence if we can’t say it was self-defense in the line of duty.”

 _Good, glad he thought that through,_ Nick thought. “And you agreed to all that?”

“Reluctantly,” she said blandly. “But my curiosity is a big driving force now. And you are under the same conditions,” she added.

“Come again?”

She poked him in the chest, looking seriously. “ _You_ have to keep me in the loop about wesen business you come upon. Especially if a Grimm might be needed. You don’t want me to go off solo, fine, but neither can you and its _official_ now. That’s part of why I’m partnered with both of you now, because you do tend to find the “weird” cases. ”

Nick couldn’t deny that was true but also a little daunting. He was worried what Sloane might be like out in the field, and wondered if a badge was going to hinder her or make her bolder. “Why did you decide to stay? I thought you wanted to leave.”

“I was about to leave actually. But then your partner here came and told up about the Musai. I wasn’t going to let that be what took you out. I wouldn’t be able to look Kelly in the face if that happened and I was still here. And considering I _like_ your mom, I’d prefer to keep her as a friend.”

Nick looked at Hank in surprise. Hank shrugged. “I was worried man. You were getting out of control; I had hoped she’d know how to reverse it.”

“I didn’t exactly,” she confessed. “My way would’ve taken having you locked up somewhere for two weeks while the spell worked out of your system. That doesn’t even always work though…”

Nick smirked a little. “So Monroe and Rosalee figured out something you didn’t?”

“Apparently,” she ground out with a scowl at him. “Though in all honesty I thought they were grasping at straws. While you’re still insane to trust them I think, at the very least you chose some competent wesen to… “work” with.”

“I take it then you won’t try to kill them?” he asked more seriously.

“So long as they give me no reason to, fine,” she sighed. “After all, I agreed to not hunt wesen who haven’t committed a crime. And I’m a woman of my word. But I also still want to do some training with you. You’re…instinctive, and your instincts are good. But I still have tricks I can teach you to make things easier.”

Nick hesitated but nodded. “Alright. But, um…I’m trying to work stuff out with Juliette right now so I don’t know when I’ll schedule that.”

Hank smiled. “Glad to hear that!”

“The red head from the jail, right? I met her at Monroe and Rosalee’s shop earlier that day…They explained a bit of what happened with you two.”

He nodded, not really wanting to go into details of that again. “Yeah. So I’m glad we have a chance to start again…”

Sloane looked as though she wanted to say something but hesitated. Instead she looked back at the computer. “Someone is going to have to teach me these programs though. I’m…out of practice,” she said, glancing around the room.

“We’ll show you as we go,” Nick said. He knew she was holding something back, which was unlike her. It was something about him and Juliette he had a feeling, given that’s when she got awkward. But he decided to let it go.

Maintenance brought up a desk a little later and they worked to figure out an arrangement that didn’t take up too much space so that they could all work close together. The easiest way ended being keeping Nick and Hanks’ desks facing each other with just a little more space between them and then Sloane’s capping them at one end. Her computer came next and Sloane sat down to log in and look it over. “It’s been a long time since I worked with a desk top computer…I’ve worked mostly with books and paper. Closest thing is my phone.”

“Well, better get used to it. I warned you police work is 80% paper work, and honestly a lot is on the computer,” Nick said.

“Joyous…” she said sarcastically. She perked up when Nick and Hank’s phones both went off and Nick picked up first.

 “Detective Burkhardt. …What? You two okay? …Okay, got it, on our way.”  He stood up, putting his phone in his pocket and making sure his gun was secure. “Wu and Franco were checking out a disturbance report and found a guy who may have killed someone. He tried to assault them and Franco shot him.”

“Shit,” Hank said, grabbing a crutch.

“Sure you’re okay to come?”

“I just need one crutch right now.”

“Okay, Tiny Tim…” He looked at Sloane who was apparently waiting on them. “Did Renard give you a gun with that badge?”

Sloane frowned. “Yes…but I dislike using guns.”

“Well, that thing is still your responsibility so it’s better with you than someplace someone can grab it.”

She frowned more but sighed and went over to her desk, pulling it out of the drawer where she had apparently slipped it in and holstering it to her. “There. I prefer my knife though.”

“If someone pulls a gun on you, you’ll probably want a gun to point back,” Hank said.

“If someone points a gun at me, they better pull that trigger fast before I get to them,” she muttered. They headed down to the car, Sloane climbing in the back without a fuss as they headed to the scene. It looked like a normal enough house on the outside, but inside it was a mess. The suspect, Richard Mulpus, was dead at the scene. Sloane grimaced a little, mostly looking in disgusted fascination at the trail of bright green mucus trailing from his nose. “That…is not normal.”

“We don’t think so either,” Wu said. “We also have a deceased woman, possibly a victim, over here.” Looking her over, Nick and Hank noticed first that while everything around them was torn apart and flipped over, the woman’s body was in pristine condition. Sloane agreed it was odd but did not seem very keen on the crime when they arrived back at the station.

“What’s wrong?” Nick asked. “It hasn’t even been a full day and you look done.”

“I was hoping for something more obviously wesen related,” she said, looking over the case report. “I can’t tell much of anything from this information…So I don’t know if it’s even worth it to me.”

“Maybe I’ve finally been blessed with a non-wesen crime,” Nick wondered in a mockingly hopeful tone.

Sloane sneered. “Great for you but that’s kind of not what I signed up for…”

He shrugged and clicked through his computer again before nodding. “Well, we got a hit on the woman. Lilly O'Hara. Long history of solicitation and drugs. Last known residence here in Portland. Last arrest, seven weeks ago, charges were dropped,” he said, sending them the screen shot.

“Any connection to the house she was in?” Hank asked.

“Not that I can see here. What about the guy?”

“Eh, not much,” Hank said. “Name's Richard Mulpus. Minor arrest record. Last conviction, four years ago, for check kiting. Served six months. Nothing much since. Address, Crescent hotel.”

“So no connection with O'Hara aside from being in the same room as her dead body?” Sloane asked.

“Not unless he hired her for the night. We won't know that until the lab sees her,” Hank said.

“Yeah, but why take her to a house and then break in and trash the place?” Nick said. Hank looked just as perplexed as him and before Nick could ask, Sloane was surprisingly on the beat faster than him.

“Any violent history from Mulpus?” Sloane asked, bored. “Like could he have done this before?”

“Asking a lot of questions for something “not worth your time,” Nick said with a smile. Sloane rolled her eyes.

“Nothing on record. Um, wait a minute. Something screwy here.”

“What?” the two Grimms asked together. They glanced at one another but didn’t comment on the wonder twin moment.

Hank did smile a second but went back to business quickly. “Just found a death certificate for Richard Mulpus.”

“Filed already? We haven't even talked to the M.E.,” Nick said in surprise.

“No, this one's dated three days ago,” Hanks said with disbelief and confusion.

“What?” Nick asked, getting up to go look at his computer. Sloane stood and walked over as well, scanning over the certificate on screen. “It's got to be a different guy,” Nick said.

“The fingerprints from both guys match Mulpus,” Hank said, showing them the file.

“What, so Mulpus died twice?”

“Yeah, according to this.”

“…Neat trick,” Nick said, not sure what else to say.

“It's gotta be a clerical error,” Hank said, checking through the files one more time.

Nick looked thoughtful before standing. “Let's take a look.”

Sloane smiled as she stood with them to follow. “On the Brightside, this just got interesting!”

Nick rolled his eyes but honestly couldn’t deny this was intriguing. He led the way down to the morgue, where Harper was examining Mulpus. Introductions were made for the new “detective” in the group and Hank showed Harper what they found.

“It's gotta be a clerical error, I mean, it happens. Somebody was probably trying to do too many things at once,” Harper said.

“Well, according to the certificate, he was pronounced dead at St. Joseph's hospital by a Dr. Feldman at 2:45 in the afternoon three days ago,” Hank said.

“Well, I guarantee you, he's dead now,” she retorted, gesturing at the bullet wounds.

“Okay. What about the green stuff that was coming out of his nose?” Nick asked.

“Not your typical mucus. Color and consistency abnormal.”

“No offense, but that was kinda of obvious,” Sloane said, grimacing at remembering the snot.

“What, a little mucus grosses you out?” Nick said with a smile.

“No…it’s just gross in general,” she said defensively. “And weird.”

“Yeah, well, we're running tox tests now to see what he was on. We've ruled out the usual suspects... coke, meth, heroin, alcohol,” Harper said.

“PCP? Wu said he was pretty strong, that might’ve made him crazy and prone to aggression,” Sloane asked.

“Negative on that too.”

“And really, no explanation for the previous death certificate?” she asked.

“My guess is, guys, you're working on a mistaken identity,” Harper said with a shrug.

Nick, Hank, and Sloane all looked at one another before Nick sighed and pulled out his phone to take a picture of Mulpus’ body. “Well, there's only one way to find out.”

That way was apparently driving to St. Joseph’s and speaking with Dr. Feldman. The doctor insisted he’d pronounced a man named Richard Mulpus dead three days ago himself, but said he couldn’t say for certain if the photo was of that man because he sees so many people in the ER day to day. He said they were free to go see the morgue themselves since no family came to pick up the body yet.

“So if we've got a positive I.D. That our dead guy, shot to death, who lived in the hotel who was taken by the paramedics here three days ago... who the hell's in the morgue?” Hank asked as he used his crutches to head down the hall. Sloane and Nick moved slowly enough he could keep up easily next to him.

“Evil twin,” Nick responded, trying mostly to lighten the mood.

“Actually, it could be a doppelganger,” Sloane said. “Or what most call a changeling, but they usually take the forms of children…It could be a fantoccio corpo, but they would’ve had to enter the body to move it and then split it open like a cocoon. They wouldn’t have just suddenly turned violent… I can’t think of a specific wesen who can do this…” she sighed.

“I forget wesen have a lot of freaky abilities…” Hank muttered. He noticed Nick had jogged up ahead to look around the corner and they quickly caught up. “What'd you see?”

Nick hesitated, glancing back again “A guy in a top hat…”

“What guy in a top hat?” Hank asked, both he and Sloane looking down the hall now. There was no sign of a man in a hat.

“I could've sworn I saw the same guy standing outside the crime scene this morning…”

“Same guy or same hat?” Hank asked.

“I don't know,” Nick sighed.

Hank shrugged and moved on down the hall, not thinking it was too important to dwell on. Nick was about to follow when Sloane put a hand on his shoulder. “Trust your instincts…If you saw him both places, there’s probably a reason.”

Nick nodded slightly. “You go between being encouraging and calling me an idiot pretty often…”

“I call it as I see it,” she said with a smile.

Nick rolled his yes. “Well, either way, I don’t know which way he went…for now, the body is our best lead.”

Sloane nodded and followed them down to the morgue, though she couldn’t help but glance back as well. When they got to the morgue they found, to the attendant’s surprise, Mulpus was not in his cadaver tray on the shelves. That just made things more complicated as Sloane tried to think about what was going on.

It got even weirder when they returned to the precinct only for Wu to rush up to them.

“Hey, there you are. I've been looking for you guys. Oh, Larson, how’s your first day going?”

“Uh…well, it’s not boring, with people apparently rising from the dead only to die again…” she said honestly. “Great way to start a new job.”

Wu looked surprised. “Did you get the M.E. call already then?”

The glanced at each other and then back to Wu. “No. Why?” Nick asked.

“Well, it seems that the dead woman we found in the rental house this morning is not so dead.”

“How not so dead?” Hank asked, though they all already had an idea of the answer.

“Not so dead in the sense that when the M.E. started the autopsy, she woke up,” Wu said with a bit of a sarcastic tone of disbelief. They all exchanged looks.

“Where is she?” Nick asked.

“The M.E.?”

“No, the dead woman who isn't all that dead,” Sloane said more impatiently.

“Oh, she's in the I.C.U. at St. Joe's. I was thinking maybe we…” They didn’t wait for Wu to finish as they all rushed for the door to get back to their car, Hank moving as fast as he could on his crutches.

“This is the most times I’ve been to a hospital in a while…” Sloane said as they parked.

“What, don’t get injured? Too good at being a Grimm?” Nick said.

“Oh no, I get injured all the time. I just usually have to triage it because going to hospitals is A) expensive when you don’t have insurance and can’t just sneak away and B) dangerous when you’re going to get people asking a lot of questions about why you have claw marks on your back that are definitely not someone’s passionate embrace.”

“Wait, you triage _yourself_?” Hank asked.

“Yeah, most of the time. If I can I go to one of our safe houses that has a doctor, but those are pretty rare and only in some major cities. I have a pretty extensive medical kit and some old fashioned techniques. I can do stitches, administer shots and sedatives, set bones…I took a talon out of my stomach once, wanna see the scar?” She moved to lift her shirt up and Nick quickly stopped her.

“I…Sloane, that’s dangerous doing that sort of thing alone,” he said, unable to keep the worry out of his voice and face.

She shrugged, apparently not concerned. “That’s just how it was. Luckily I don’t have _that_ many scars thanks to some other Grimm home remedies. It’d be suspicious if I did and I can’t wear long sleeves and jeans all the time. But the talon one got complicated because I was alone on a mountain for a few days and I needed to get it out before it punctured anything. Most people just accept it when I say it was my appendectomy if they get a look at it.”

Nick and Hank shared a glance, a little worried now at thinking about anyone having to do that sort of thing on their own. “Let’s…go check on Lily O’Hara, we can talk more later.”

Sloane nodded, following them back into the hospital. Only now, that patient was missing as well.

“I’m starting to think this is _Invasion of the Body Snatchers_!” Hank said as they waited for the surveillance footage to wind back to where they needed to see it.

“I only know one wesen that can do something like that and considering we haven’t found any human husks that look like shed cicada skins, I don’t think it’s that,” Sloane said quietly.

“Oh, well, glad we have that to look to look forward to,” Nick said, hoping they never encountered that wesen. When they reviewed the footage at the station, they were all surprised to see a black man wearing a top hat wheeling their revived victim out of the ICU.

“That's her, our dead victim,” Hank said.

“And that's him,” Nick said, looking at the man.

“Same guy as before?”

“Yeah.”

Sloane gently smacked his shoulder with her hand. “Like I said, trust your instincts. You knew something was wrong with that guy.”

“Well, he doesn’t exactly blend in…” Nick pointed out. “We're going to need a copy of all your surveillance footage,” he told the guard. The guard nodded and went to go create a copy at another station.

Nick’s phone rang then and he took it out. “It’s Wu.” He answered, holding the phone up to his ear. “Burkhardt…Well, should I be? Okay, just a sec.” He took the phone away and clicked the speaker. “Wu has the tox report. Okay Wu.”

Wu’s voice came out over the phone clearly. “Lab found a complex interaction of various drugs, including tetrodotoxin, scopolamine, and a powerful hallucinogen called datura, which, according to this, can cause a Lazarus syndrome where the victim appears dead, only to awaken some time later.”

“That would explain him being declared dead the first time, same as her,” Hank said. Sloane looked like she was wracking her brain and getting frustrated with herself.

“It says, when ingested in large doses, the victim can exhibit erratic and explosive behavior,” Wu went on.

Hank sighed. “Okay, put an A.P.B out on Lily O’Hara.”

“Isn’t she in the hospital,” Wu asked.

“Not anymore,” Nick told him.

 “This is getting too weird, even for Portland,” Wu said snidely before hanging up.

Hank looked back towards the monitor room. “We gotta find the guy with the top hat...”

“Dammit,” Sloane said, slapping her hand down on the desk, face twisted in frustration. “I can feel it in my gut this is a wesen case, but I’ve never heard of any of that stuff! I can’t think of any wesen that can do this!”

“Calm down,” Nick said gently.

“I can’t!” she snapped.

“Hey, I rarely know what wesen is doing these things going in.”

“You’re green though,” she huffed. “I’ve been doing this for almost two decades.”

Hank looked shocked at that information but Nick nodded. “You can’t expect to know everything though. We’ll go do some research…Did you ever get to see Marie’s trailer?”

The dark mood lifted almost instantly and the excited smile Sloane gave was actually rather infectious as she led the way back to the car. On the way they picked up some burgers to eat since it was past lunch time. When they got to the trailer park, Sloane hopped out of the car first and approached the trailer with a smile. “Wow…this brings back memories…”

“I thought you hadn’t seen the trailer before.”

“Not the inside. Well, not that I can remember well. She brought me inside once, when I was delirious from being hit in the head. Nursed me back to a somewhat healthy state and then my mentor came and got me. But I remember Marie toting it around the times we met. I’ve thought about getting one myself…It would be a lot more comfortable than sleeping in my car sometimes. And a lot more room for things.”

Nick smiled a little, thinking about his Aunt looking out for Sloane like that. He opened the door and gestured like a gentleman. “Ladies first.”

She gave him a wry smile but headed inside. “Wow…this is so…great! She really did plan this out well. It’s even got a bed! And a spice cabinet! And an armoire!” She opened the armoire, grinning more at the weapons inside. “An armory armoire, even better!”

Nick had to snort a laugh as he and Hank sat at the table in the middle with their food. Sloane acting like an excited kid was actually a nice change. “You can fangirl later, really, but we need to start looking through the books.”

Sloane actually blushed and closed the armoire again. “Right...” Walking over, she sat and pulled a book out. “I can already say I’m pretty sure none of mine would be any help. I’ve read them dozens of times and I can’t remember any with information about this ‘Lazarus effect’ type of thing. My grandmother’s house might have one but considering that’d be a long road trip and every second counts, you better hope we find something in yours.”

Nick nodded and they got comfortable as they each took a book and flipped through them. After a few minutes of eating, Sloane held up the book. “Nick…Could I borrow this one later?”

“Huh? Why?”

“Well, I don’t actually have as many books as you on hand. I have to pick and choose from my grandmother’s collection where it’s kept and it’s a pain to get them. That’s why I have flash cards of wesen stored alphabetically in my things, but I don’t think I have some of the ones in here. Maybe I could copy some things from these, expand my collection for future use.”

Nick nodded slowly. “Uh…sure. I mean, you’re free to come here and copy them in the trailer if you want.”

“Really?” she asked, looking excited again.

“Yeah. Just ask me or Monroe, we have keys.”

Her excitement fell a little as she stared at him. “I…you really did give a key to the _blutbad_? For real? He could come in here and shred-”

Nick frowned. “Don’t start.”

She frowned back but bit her tongue and went back to reading, carefully eating her burger around the delicate book. They were almost done with their food when Nick found an entry. He skimmed through it, giving them the information about one of his ancestor looking for a voodoo priest and witnessing a ceremony. At the end, he found that the priest was a cracher-mortel, _“whose spit can induce a deathlike trance_ ”.

“Well that sounds promising,” Sloane said, looking at the entry over his shoulder. “And disgusting, spitting in people’s faces like that…”

“So the cracher-mortel makes zombies?” Hank asked.

“Seems like it.” Nick’s phone rang and he pulled out. Answering the call, he held it to his ear. “Monroe?” Sloane glared automatically but Nick ignored her. “Trailer….I'm with Hank. …And Sloane. No, she’s, uh…it’s complicated. But she’s promised a truce when it comes to you two at least.” Sloane rolled her eyes. “…All right, we'll be there as soon as we're done here. We'll see you then.” He hanged up and looked at Hank. “Monroe and Rosalee want to talk with us about something.”

“Good chance to see if they know anything about this guy,” Hank said, tapping the picture.

Nick looked at Sloane. “You’ll be on your best behavior, right?”

“I’m not a child,” she said blandly.

“I know. I just want to make sure we’re clear what ‘best behavior’ means.”

She rolled her eyes again. “I get it, no attacking your pets.”

“ _Friends_.”

“Yeah yeah…So are we going over there?”

“I think it’s better to go to the captain first on this one. Plus, gotta make sure he knows it is a likely wesen case for your sake…”

They got back in the car and headed for the station, finding Renard still there thankfully. He readily saw them and Nick showed him the pictures from the hospital as they explained what was going on so far.

“We think we're dealing with a cracher-mortel who has the ability to induce a voodoo-like trance,” Hank said, giving his leg a rest in the chair.

“More of your books? Or…” Renard glanced at Sloane.

“Books,” she said simply. “Nick found it, but it sounds right to me from what I’ve seen. I’ve never faced one of these before.”

Renard looked back at Nick. “You're getting pretty comfortable with all this,” he said with a slight smile.

He wasn’t sure if she meant being a Grimm or Sloane being there. Either way the answer was the same. “Yeah. I wouldn't call it comfortable.”

“We're trying to get an I.D. on him, but so far, no go,” Hank added.

“Now why would he pick up two apparent strangers, drug them, and then put them in an unoccupied house?” Renard asked. No one knew the answer to that.

“There's something we're not seeing,” Nick sighed.

“More worrying, if Lily O’Hara has gone through the same thing that happened to Mulpus, she’s probably going to start losing it pretty soon,” Sloane pointed out.

“Probably,” Nick agreed. “At least it’ll be easier to find her.”

“All right. Keep me posted,” Renard said.

They agreed and headed back out the door. “What now?” Sloane asked.

“Now might be a good time to go talk to Rosalee and Monroe,” Nick said. “See if they know anything.

Sloane grimaced. “I…think it might be best you do that on your own. I’ll go see if I can hunt up any leads on my own.”

“Sloane—”

“No killing, no torture, I know,” she said, obviously getting tired of being reminded. “There are other ways I can get information. I just have to find the right places to check.”

Nick frowned but Hank was nodding. “Okay. You’re also going to sleep sometime, right? You were looking pretty tired the other day.”

Sloane gave him an odd look but shrugged. “I’ve run on less sleep than that. Right now I’m staying at a motel. Renard said I can start looking for an apartment and he’ll front the money for the down payment from my pay checks. I’d rather make sure we’re not about to have a zombie outbreak though…”

“Yeah, wouldn’t want this to turn into _The Walking Dead_ ,” Hank agreed.

“Is…that a movie?” she asked uncertainly. “I haven’t really seen many lately to be honest, but it sounds familiar…”

“Uh…no. TV,” Nick said.

“Ah, don’t really watch that either. Only Zombie thing I know is _Night of the Living Dead.”_

“Remake one or the black and white one?” Nick asked.

“… They remade it?” she asked, honestly confused.

Nick laughed a little. “I think that answers that question. Okay, you go see if you can find anything out, let us know if you do. And try to stay out of trouble.”

“I’m not the one that can’t handle trouble,” she said snidely, heading for her car which was still parked at the precinct. She drove off, looking around for seedy bars where people usually had an idea of what was going on in the weird parts of town.

Unfortunately, she had no luck. She showed the picture to a few people that looked like they might know some things, but aside from a few people recognizing Lily she got nothing. They didn’t know where she had gone, or who the man in the top hat was. It was another frustration added to a list of many. She didn’t like staying in one place, she didn’t like being tied down by rules and regulations, and she especially didn’t like feeling useless. None of that was going to stop her from getting this “cracher-mortel” on the end of her knife if she had her way, but it was making her second guess remaining in Portland not for the first time.

Going to the motel, she showered while she thought about it still and then dressed for bed. Her knife was placed under her pillow, her phone with an alarm set on the nightstand. _Tomorrow is another day,_ she told herself, trying not to feel like a clock wound too tightly.

\--------------

Things did not go well the next day. Sloane went into the precinct to find that Nick scheduled to come in later. That wasn’t terrible, she opted to sit and looking through the computers a little. When he did come in, he nodded her and then gestured she follow him to the Captain’s office. She quickly exited the program she was on and did so, giving him a curious look. Nick looked to Renard instead. “Is this a ‘shut the door’ kind of conversation?” he asked.

Renard was looking over something while standing at his desk and gave him a flat look. “My brother is here in Portland,” he said as he walked back around the desk and took a seat.

Sloane blinked at the odd conversation, wondering if it was some sort of code, before Nick sighed and shut the door. “Is he some sort of ‘your highness’?” he asked.

“What?” Sloane asked.

“He’s a prince, and wields a lot of power within the family.”

Sloane stared at him. “What?!”

“What’s he doing here?” Nick asked

“Well, he says he’s here to discuss family matters, but I never believe a word he says,” Renard said coolly, gesturing for them to sit. Nick did, but Sloane was still looking between them.

“Whoa, okay, time out!” Sloane practically shouted, making a T with her hands. “I thought you were a zauberbeast?”

Renard blinked and then looked amused. “Ah, sorry, I forgot you don’t know…I am a zauberbeast. Mostly. My mother is a hexenbeast, but my father was a king of a royal family. A _royal_ family.”

Sloane gaped at him. “You…you’re a royal?!”

“Yes, but only half and a very black sheep in the family,” he said. “I hope you won’t hold it against me.”

“I’m a little tempted to,” she said honestly. “I’m not a fan of the royals any more than I am of wesen.”

“Well, I wouldn’t blame you if you did honestly. I’m not really fond of them either, Eric especially. His mother tried to have mine murdered, and me.”

“That must’ve made for an awkward family Christmas,” Nick tried to joke.

“I wouldn’t know, I was never invited,” Renard replied.

“Well…glad to know there’s no love lost between you then,” Sloane said, sitting in the other chair now.

Nick sighed a little. “So he’s the one that wants the key?”

“All the royal families want the key. My brother is just more determined. He knows how much power it would give him if he had it.”

“Aaaand I’m lost again. Key?” Sloane asked. “You guys seem to be forgetting I’m new here and wasn’t part of your little club till now.”

Renard looked at Nick to see if he wanted to explain. Nicked turned slightly in his chair to face Sloane. “Among Aunt Marie’s things when I started looking was this…little metal tab, about this big,” he gestured with his fingers, “with markings on it. When I opened it, it had the end of a key inside, and it formed a map too when I tried using it like a stamp. Well, part of a map.”

“It’s one of seven,” Renard said.

“You…have one of those keys?” she asked in surprise.

“You know about them?” Nick asked.

“Well…not much, honestly. I’ve seen one once, a few years ago. My mentor took it from a group of verat she killed.”

“The verat?” Renard asked in surprise. “Then…she took it from the royals?”

“Yes. She heard they had it and went looking for it specifically. I remember because she kept talking about a key. I was with her at the time but I was just a kid. It was my first trip abroad actually, to Germany.”

“Was it just one?” Renard asked.

“I…think so? I only saw the one that she got anyway. Wait, no,” she amended, thinking. “She said another was found but someone else was taking care of it…” she clarified, remembering now. “I remember because I asked if I could try to get one, to prove I was good enough, and she laughed…she doesn’t laugh much, so made it kind of memorable…”

Nick frowned a little but Renard nodded slowly. “I see…I may be mistaken then how many keys the royals have now. If one faction of the royal families lost one, they would certainly try to keep it under wraps. I thought they had four, and then two were missing, and then Nick had one, but perhaps they lost a few themselves.”

“Do you know what she did with the key?” Nick asked Sloane.

Sloane sighed and shook her head. “I only saw it for a little bit. I found it among her things while I was putting them away when she got back and was looking it over, wondering why she’d go through so much trouble for it. She practically tore it from my hands and told me not to touch it. Gave a…very vague explanation, something about a Grimm legacy. Then she said she was taking it to a safe place and left without me. It must’ve been relatively close though, she was only gone a few hours and then she was back. This was still back in Germany though.”

“I see…well, at the very least, I see why Eric is so keen to get this one.” He pulled open the file again and handed them some pictures of documents. “Any of these men might be working with my brother. I don't know much more about them except for their names.” Sloane scanned the files with Nick. “Now this one... This is the one I'm most worried about.” He handed them another photo, this time of an empty file. “Thomas Schirach. His file is empty.”

“Death certificates, body transport permits...Are they here for a funeral?” Sloane asked.

“I haven’t found a properly filed death certificate for Schirach,” Renard said meaningfully.

“Are we talking forged documents?” Nick asked as he flipped through the other files, handing them to Sloane to look over as well.

“Probably,” Renard said.

“Could they be smuggling something? Or someone?” Sloane asked, her brain working through possibilities.

“I don't know.” They paused when Renard’s phone started ringing and he picked it up to look at the ID. “Oh, this is him.”

“You want us to leave?” Nick asked delicately.

“No. I want you to listen,” he said, answering the call and putting it on speaker. Sloane leaned in, curious now. “Eric,” Sean said simply.

“Sean. Let me first say, good morning. I'm having a hearty Northwestern breakfast, and I feel robust already,” came an oily slick voice over the line. Sloane wrinkled her nose, already disliking him without ever laying eyes on him.

“Well, good for you,” Renard said.

“I was hoping we could dine together tonight. There are some pressing family issues you'll be interested in.”

“Where?”

“My suite, at the Gregory. Shall we say, 8:00?”

“All right.”

“Can't wait to see you, brother,” he said, sounding greatly amused.

“Me either... Brother.” Renard tapped the call to an end and looked at them. “We're not exactly close.”

“Can’t say I blame you, he sounds…creepy,” Sloane said. Nick nodded a little in agreement before someone knocking got their attention.

Wu opened the door and leaned in. “Good morning. Well, not really. We've got sort of a mini crime wave situation. We've had a slew, and by that, I mean a crapload, of 911 calls reporting several violent assaults and a lot of property damage downtown. From the calls, they sound drug-fueled, similar to what Franco and I ran into in that rental house.”

Nick looked at Sloane and then to Renard. “Lilly O'Hara is still missing…”

“I’m betting she wasn’t the only one who was now,” Sloane agreed.

“If it keeps up, we're gonna run out of uniforms,” Wu added.

Renard nodded to them. “Go. I’ll tell Griffin to take it easy; he’s going to have a hard time on those crutches if there are hostiles in the streets.”

Sloane and Nick both got up and headed down to Nick’s car, opting to drive together. They made it to the shop where Wu was already there helping look after a man covered in broken glass. He rushed up when they climbed out of the car, and Sloane took in the chaos of the damaged shops and garbage-littered streets.

“Hey. According to witnesses, a man and a woman entered the shop and went crazy. The woman apparently threw the victim through the window. We think they're still inside. Nobody's seen them come out.”

“Any weapons involved?” Nick asked.

“No. Just good old brute force.”

“And that’s pretty brutish,” Sloane said, eying the window and the overturned and broken furniture inside.

“You want to wait till we check it out?” Wu asked.

“No. Let's see what we got,” Nick said, pulling out his gun and heading for the door. Sloane followed, going first for her knife but then taking the gun if just to avoid Wu’s questions since he was following with his gun drawn as well.

“Sure did a number on this place,” Wu said, walking carefully around the mess. They paused when they heard footsteps from above. “Sounds like somebody is upstairs,” Nick said.

“Two people,” Sloane corrected and he glanced at her curiously.

They heard some growls and grunting from upstairs as well then, mindless like animals. “Sounds like a...No. I'm not sure what that sounds like,” Wu said.

“I have some ideas,” Sloane muttered. They made their way up the stairs. The rooms there were apparently for storage. They lit their flashlights for a better look through the musty light of the storage room as they slowly went in. Once inside they fanned out, looking around the corners created by shelves and boxes

Wu yelling and a lot of crashing got their attention and Sloane and Nick went running for the other side of the room. Wu was on the ground while Lily O’Hara was on top of him, trying to claw at his face. She jumped off when she saw them coming and bolted out the other doorway. “She bit me!” Wu yelled, part indignity, part pain, and part disbelief.

Nick rushed after her but Sloane paused. “Can you stand and move?”

Wu nodded, hoisting himself up. He winced a little putting weight on his leg but nodded. “Hurts but I’ll live.”

Sloane nodded and rushed to follow Nick while Wu found his gun and flashlight. She heard a crash and felt her heart lurch as she sped up. She almost hit Nick as he was coming back around the corner, looking out windows. She sighed in relief but then looked out with him to see Lily now duking it out with the officers on the ground. Wu came up next to them and stared. “How the hell did she get down there?!” he asked.

“She went through a window and on to a car!” Nick said. Sloane glanced back at the broken window in the room around the corner and then back to Lily swiping at the cops and finally being taken down.

“She bit me,” Wu said again. “I don’t know what she’s on, but it’s a lot of it!” he turned to head back down, muttering to himself about crazy drug addicts.

Sloane looked at Nick. “You good?”

“Fine. I got out of the way in time,” he said, holstering his gun. Sloane did the same. “C’mon, we better get down there.”

She nodded and followed him back to the storage room to get to the stairwell. Something was bugging her though. Then she heard a soft growl. “Nick-”

A yell shot out as a large man came running for him, pale like Lily and his mouth open. Before he could tackle him, Nick landed a punch in his stomach that had him stumbling. Sloane came at him from the side and pulled the man away by his hair, giving him a strike to the side as well near his kidneys. Neither seemed to faze him. They both tried punching him in the face but that just seemed to make him angry as he stumbled back again and then ran for them. As if reading each other first, they both parted to either side like double doors and the man ran right through the middle into the brick wall of the stairwell, finally going down as he concussed himself.

“What. The. Hell?” Sloane asked.

Nick didn’t answer, going over to maneuver the man around and cuff him. “He’s drugged up, like Lily.”

“I kind of figured. It was more of a rhetorical ‘what the hell’. Do we know this guy?”

“No, no idea who he is. But I want to take him to the spice shop.”

“Okay…why?”

“Rosalee might be able to help him. And if she can help him, we can help everyone else who’s been…zombified.”

Sloane frowned but then nodded with a sigh. “Right…and you want to get him there how?”

Nick reached into his pocket and then tossed her his keys, which she caught easily. “Bring my car around the side, I’ll sneak him down.”

Sloane eyed the large, unconcious drugged out man. “…Yeah, this should be fun,” she muttered, heading towards the side door out. She brought the car around while Nick carried the unconscious man down the stairs and out the door. Not an easy feat with him being a–hopeuflly not literal—dead weight. Quickly they loaded him in very back of the SUV and closed the door on him. “I realize I’m new at this, but I’m pretty sure this isn’t police procedure,” she said.

“Desperate times call for desperate measure,” Nick panted, glancing around to make sure no one saw.

“We must be desperate to go see wesen about this…” Sloane muttered, climbing into the car with him. She glanced back, slightly worried. “What if he wakes up? I don’t think he’s wesen, and he’s not in his right mind…I’d rather not kill him.”

“I’m with you on the not kill him part. Let’s just hope he stays out of it till we get to the spice shop.” They sped off towards the shop and Nick pulled out his phone to call ahead. “Monroe, hey. We’re heading to the shop. We need you and Rosalee’s help. …Yes, it’s with a case. I should’ve told you yesterday, but well…I’ll explain there. I just need to warn you, we have someone with us that’s potentially really dangerous. …No. Well, yes, she’s coming too, but it’s someone else. Again, explain there.” He hanged up. “…He thought I was talking about you when I said someone dangerous.”

Sloane couldn’t help but smile a little. “Good.”

Nick had Sloane use his phone to text Hank about what was happening as well and to meet them at the shop if he could. They got to the shop and Nick and Sloane managed to yank the man in the coveralls out of the back and drag him inside, then lift him with Monroe’s help onto a chaise lounge in the back of the shop. Hank arrived as they did and was a bit shocked by the apparent corpse they were pulling around. “He looks dead,” Monroe said. He was right, the man was pale and a little bloated like a corpse and certainly lifeless as they hauled him around.

“Yeah, I know he looks dead, and he probably was for a little while, but he's not now,” Nick said.

“So far we've seen three just like him,” Hank said.

“Three?” Rosalee said.

“That we know of. Two were pronounced dead, then get up and caused a lot of trouble, so we brought this one here.”

“And Wu shot one that got up and tried to attack him like an animal,” Sloane added. She eyed Monroe who just narrowed his eyes back, somehow feeling she was insulting him in her mind. He was right, but he couldn’t prove it. Sloane didn’t back down either, stretching her fingers as if preparing for a fight. Monroe rumbled slightly and Nick noticed the tension and quickly moved between them to break eye contact.

“And we went through the books and found something that we think might explain it,” Nick said.

“Yeah, the Cracher-Mortel,” Hank nodded. “There was also a reference to a voodoo priest known as Baron Samedi, among other names. We were hoping you might have some information about what he's done here.”

Rosalee nodded slowly and then started to move towards the shop front. “I think I might. I've got several books on wesen dammerzustand... wesen trances. There's a pretty big pharmacology associated with this.” She paused when she passed Sloane, who was leaning against the wall and staying quiet. Sloane flicked her eyes to her in challenge and Rosalee quickly made her way back to the book shelves.

“So you're telling me this guy is gonna wake up?” Monroe said, looking over the unconscious man.

“Yeah. And he won’t be in a very good mood,” Hank said.

Rosalee was already coming back to the room with a book in hand. “Okay. All right. There are several categories of trance-like states... bhakti, maenads, rapture, bacchae, euphoria...”

“If I know my latin and lore, none of those. We’re looking more for the “living dead” kind of trance,” Sloane said.

Rosalee nodded, still flipping pages. “Okay…here's the one we want. Caused by several different types of wesen "who can induce paralysis, cataplexy, hypnagogic hallucination, and the temporary illusion of death."”

“Good lord. Is there any treatment?” Monroe asked.

“Seems to be,” Rosalee said, much to everyone’s relief. “But there are four stages they go through. First is paralysis, second is a drugged-like state in which they can move. It progresses to the third stage, which to all appearances is death, and then comes the last stage... oh. This looks to be super fun. Increasingly violent behavior which, basically, leads to murder and mayhem.”

“Yeah, saw that stage today,” Sloane said lightly.

“So, we treat them in the first phase,” Nick said, watching Rosalee as she paced and read the book.

“No, we can't. As a matter of fact, the treatment would kill them in the first three stages. It's only effective in the final stage.” She set the book down and went over to a cabinet, opening it.

“Of course it is, nothing is ever that kind,” Sloane muttered.

“So, what is the treatment?” Hank asked.

“We have to stimulate the central nervous system,” she said, starting to look through her shelves in the treatment room. “And we can do that orally, or with ointments, or... ah...” She found what she was looking for, a brown wooden case, and pulled it out and onto the table. “The most efficacious way, subcutaneous.”

“So we give them a shot?” Nick clarified. Sloane walked forward as well, curiosity getting the better of her.

“Three simultaneous shots, actually...” She opened the case, revealing a collection of very different, very large syringes inside. “With a piqure-gigantesque.” She pulled out a very large syringe, about as big as her forearm, with three needles, testing to see if it would pull apart alright to be filled with something. It pulled smoothly with a sound like an unsheathed sword. “It is not a pleasant experience.”

“It does not look it,” Sloane agreed, though she was looking more fascinated now. A nice change from her cold, aloof exterior. Hank looked actually a little frightened of the syringe.

“How long does it take?” Nick asked, also a little intimidated.

“The effectiveness of the treatment is pretty fast, but it does take a while to prepare the doses. Fortunately, though, I think...” She checked the book again, looking over ingredients, nodding to herself. “I think we've got everything we'll need.”

“Okay, well, we need to get back to the precinct. You two okay if we leave him here with you?”

“Just as long as you keep him handcuffed,” Monroe said, though he didn’t look thrilled.

Nick reached into his pocket and pressed something into his hand. “Here are the keys, just in case.”

Sloane couldn’t help but smirk as they turned to head out. “Good luck. Oh, and be careful. He likes to tackle people. And the last one liked to bite. Try not to bite back if you know what’s good for you.” Monroe frowned at her. She turned and followed Nick and Hank out the door and back to the car and back to the station. Her good mood didn’t last when they found out there was a rash of missing persons, including an entire bus of people just that day that were now missing. _What does the Cracher-Mortel need with so many people?_ Sloane wondered. It was obvious Nick and Hank were wondering the same thing.

They did find the record of the man they took to the Spice Shop, Al Shaner, reported missing by the shop owner two days ago. The owner came in to talk to them and brought a recording of the service call Al went missing on. The deep, throaty sound of the client’s voice on the phone made Sloane frown again. _It’s a day for creepy voices over the phone or me…_

The car he described in his call for a tow truck however ended up being the car that belonged to one of their first victims, Richard Mulpus. Wu—who was walking alright but sore in his leg from the bite _and_ in the arm from a resulting tetanus shot apparently—found the Buick Centurion on a street near the ship yards. When they went to look at it and popped the trunk, there were a lot of very obvious occult items in the back: Candles, bowls, bottles of spices and what looked like blood, and little woven dolls as well.

“Looks like somebody is planning a party,” Hank said.

“Not a party I'd want to be invited to.”

“Looks like stuff for voodoo, from what very little I know about it,” Sloane said. “Although from what I do know, this is a pretty bastardized version of the practice.” _Maybe the cracher-mortel is responsible for people thinking this is how it’s practiced…_

“I don’t see a top hat though. Check for prints and take it in,” Hank said.

“Yeah, will do,” Wu said, closing the trunk again. Sloane and Hank noticed Nick walking off, scanning the horizon as if thinking he’d see a top hat wearing man lurking out among the ships. They both walked over to him, Hank using his crutches, and stood with him.

“What?” Hank asked, seeing the pensive look on his partner’s face.

Nick shook his head. “I don't know,” he sighed. “I just get the feeling this guy is playing us. I mean, the recorded phone call, the stuff in the trunk. I saw him at the hospital and the first crime scene? And why kidnap a tow truck driver and dump his car here?” He looked at both of them and then down again, chuckling a little. “I don't know, maybe I'm just over-thinking it.”

“No, no, no, maybe not. This thing is getting out of hand, and it's not making a lot of sense.”

“Agreed,” Sloane said. “There are more questions than answers right now—something I never like. But all the questions you have are valid. Like I said before, trust your instincts a little. If you feel something’s off, something’s off. But then, we can’t do much with what we have now…”

He nodded. “Yeah, we'd better get back to the precinct.”

“I can't,” Hank said, though he was smiling. “I'm finally getting this damn cast taken off. I gotta be there in an hour. Sad I missed out on your Zombie hunt earlier already, so I’d like to be able to move freely next time.”

“Same here,” Nick said. “Though, uh…Sloane had my back pretty well.”

“Pretty well? I helped make sure the truck driver didn’t cream you,” she snorted.

Nick chuckled again a bit more light hearted. Hank smiled as well. “You just go talk to Juliette, pick up where you left off last night. Not much we can do right now.”

Sloane frowned again but sighed. “I can look into a few things still, but I think Hank might be right. Everywhere I inquired last night was dry. Part of why I think you’re right about something stinking here. We’re finding plenty of breadcrumbs left by this ‘Samedi’, but no one else in the city is. He can’t be both clean and sloppy, so he’s probably trying to get someone in particular’s attention. If that’s the case though, we don’t have much choice except waiting for the next one to drop.”

Nick sighed softly but nodded. “Right. I'll check back with you two later,” Nick said.

They all split up back to their respective cars and headed out. Sloane stopped and grabbed a sandwich and some tea at a supermarket before going back to her motel room. Sitting cross-legged on the bed, she pulled a large case out from under the bed and opened it up. Inside were flash cards with pictures of wesen on them, information written on the reverse. They were old, a little yellowed and stained here and there, but she flipped through them as she ate. It’s what she usually did when she had down time. That or sharpen weapons, but she didn’t want to risk having those out for housekeeping to find. This could just be seen as a weird hobby, not a dangerous one.

It was a little past sunset when her phone rang he she saw it was Nick. She answered as she started putting the cards away. “Hey. Something happen?”

“Yeah, the guy at the shop’s awake.”

“And…okay?” she asked uncertainly.

“Apparently. Monroe says we should get down there right away.”

“I’m guessing he mostly meant you,” she said.

“Yes…but I promised to keep you in the loop.”

Sloane paused but huffed a small laugh. “Well, nice to know you listened. I’ll be there in a bit then.”

“We’re on our way too.”

Sloane hanged up and then wondered why he said we. Shrugging, she locked up her things and went out to her car again, heading for the shop. She ended up being the first one there and sighed as she headed to the door. The blutbad answered and she tensed, glaring on instinct. “Blutbad.”

“Hi to you too,” he said with a glower. “I should’ve guessed Nick would call you.”

She nodded and brushed past him into the shop. “So…the remedy worked.”

“Yes, it did. Rosalee knows her stuff. Same as with Nick.”

She turned to look at him icily. “I put more stock into herbs than I do “true love”, so at the very least it makes sense.”

“Hey, true love worked.”

“True love is a myth,” Sloane said. “You fall in love with someone; you fall out of love with them too just as easily. Teenagers think they’re in love with people they’ve never even met. It’s just fantasy or lust at its core there, and not much changes when we get older.”

“Man, never give a wedding toast,” Monroe said. “Love…maybe it isn’t always easy, but it’s always possible.”

“And sometimes impossible,” she said snidely. “Especially for Grimms.”

Monroe looked ready to launch into an argument when there was a knock at the door. He gave Sloane a warning look and went to answer it. “Nick, I'm glad you made it. Oh! You brought Juliette…” He stepped aside to let them in.

“She's got a lot of catching up to do,” Nick said.

“Well, you picked a hell of a night,” Monroe told her, trying to sound humorous.

Juliette smiled wanly and then noticed Sloane. “Oh…uh, hi again.”

“Hey…” she replied, looking her up and down again.

“Where is he?” Nick asked.  

“Right this way.” Monroe led them through the side room, to a little sitting area where Rosalee was sitting with Al, the tow truck driver, over cups of tea. Rosalee looked up and was surprised to see Juliette more than Sloane standing in the doorway. “Juliette…?”

“Learning curve,” Juliette said simply.

Rosalee accepted that with nod. “Works for me. Al, this is Detective Burkhardt and, uh…”

“Detective Larson,” Sloane said.

“They’re the ones that brought you in.”

Nick brought a chair over and sat at Al’s side. Sloane remained standing but came closer as well. “Hey, Al. I need you to tell me anything you can remember about your last call,” Nick said. “Um, do you remember if he was wearing a hat?”

The man nodded, surprised at the detail. “He sure was. I mean, I remember that most. It was a top hat, like Lincoln wore, and... Well, that and a lot of pain. It felt like my head was being crushed.”

“And, um, what about the car?”

“It was a '73 Buick Centurion. Supposedly it didn't start. When I tried, it did. Then the pain and… I just don't remember much other than, like, a big black room? I-I think he took me there.”

Sloane was making notes as he talked, leaving the questioning to Nick surprisingly. “Alright. Was there anyone else there?”

“There were others. I mean a lot. I thought I had died and gone to hell.”

“Do you remember where this was?”

“Sorry, I don't. There was, like, moaning and yelling. Could have been, like, the sound of a loud horn?”

“A horn like in a train or a ship?”

“It could have been a truck. I mean, I don't know,” he sighed.

“All right, anything else?”

“Green. There was a lot of green... Before everything went black.”

 “What kind of wesen are you?” Juliette suddenly asked. Sloane froze and then sighed, wishing Nick had clued her in a bit more.

“What?” Al asked in confusion.

“Um, he's not a wesen,” Monroe whispered, making a chopping motion across his neck to say they should cut that topic off.

“Oh. What is he?” she whispered back.

“Just a regular guy.”

Sloane looked to Nick with an expression that read _You didn’t prep her at all?_ and he tried not to glare at her. It was an honest mistake he seemed to think.

“Hey, Al. How about some more tea, hmm?” Rosalee said, quickly changing the subject.

 Nick pulled Monroe and Sloane out of the room where they could talk more privately. “That car we found was left across from the container yards, and some of those containers were green. And I'll bet you it would be pretty damn dark in there if you got shut in one.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” Sloane nodded.

“Should probably check it out,” Monroe agreed.

Rosalee came up next to them quickly interrupting them. “Hi. What do you want us to do with Al? Because he's starting to ask a lot of questions we don't have a lot of answers for.”

Nick and Sloane looked at one another, unsure as well. “Just let him go?” Sloane said slowly with a shrug.

Nick nodded a little. “I'll send an officer to pick him up.”

“He said there were others,” Rosalee continued.

“A lot of them,” Monroe added.

“Do you want us to treat them? You know, 'cause if you do, we're gonna need a lot more antidote.”

Nick glanced at Juliette who was listening from behind them and nodded. “Start making it.”

“I want to help,” Juliette said, coming up to them.

Sloane looked at her and frowned dubiously. “Doing what?”

Rosalee looked perplexed a second before nodding slowly. “Well, she's a vet, and we're gonna be giving a lot of injections.”

“Is she you two’s primary physician?” Sloane said with a smirk.

Monroe glared but ignored the comment. “I guess she's sort of familiar with what we do here…” Juliette smiled at them gratefully.

“But, what is this guy doing this here in Portland?” Rosalee asked.

“No idea. I mean, we have, like, voodoo donuts, but that's kind of the extent of it,” Monroe said.

“I was reading in the books, and there is reference to one of these guys starting a revolution,” Nick said slowly.

“A revolution in Portland?” Rosalee asked incredulously.

“It might not be connected, but the Captain's brother is in town,” Nick added.

“A member of the royal family came here?” Monroe asked. “That sounds kind of revolutionary to me.”

“And the Captain said he was gonna make a play for the key,” Nick said, removing something from around his neck.

Sloane balked when she saw it was the key. “You had that around your neck this whole time?!” she growled.

“Safest place I could think of,” he shrugged.

“If he’s making a play for the key, that means he he’s looking for you,” Monroe said.

“So not so safe anymore,” Sloane surmised.

“What is that?” Juliette asked, staring at it in confusion.

Nick smiled sympathetically. “I'll tell you later.” He turned to Rosalee. “I need you to hide this.”

Rosalee sighed but took it. “Okay.”

Sloane gaped at him and then her, her hands moving uselessly between them. “You just…gave it to the fuchsbau…You constantly find ways to horrify me.”

“I trust her,” Nick said. “And no one would think to look here for it.”

“So, I guess we should start making some more antidote,” Monroe said. “Does anybody know how much more we're gonna need?”

“As much as you can.”

“And hopefully not more,” Sloane sighed.

They worked to quickly to get a large batch of the antidote ready and then piled into Nick’s car. It was a little awkward to say the least because Nick gave Juliette the front seat, so that left Sloane in the back with Monroe and Rosalee. It was a tense ride to the docks for everyone, but especially them as Sloane did her best to keep her distance, sticking to the side door, and didn’t talk. It was both a relief and an even bigger worry when they arrived and sprung out of the car.

“So…where do we start?” Monroe asked, looking around the towers of shipping crates.

“We start with green containers,” Nick said, not sure where else they could start.

“We only have one piqure-gigantesque,” Rosalee said, holding up the three-needled syringe. “Let's hope we find them one at a time.”

“Considering my luck lately, I rather doubt it,” Sloane said, turning on her flashlight. In her other hand, she had one of the padded training bats she used with Nick. “I got one more of these in the car if anyone is interested.”

“Give it to Juliette,” Nick said automatically.

Sloane arched her eyebrow but pulled the bat out of the back and offered it to Juliette. “Oh, uh, thanks…”

“It’s non-lethal. Or should be. I’d rather not kill them.”

Juliette smiled a little and nodded and hefted the bat.

“Let's go,” Nick said, starting through the labyrinthine container yard. Most of the ones they saw were unlocked, but a ways in Nick paused and walked over to one green container, pulling at a padlock attached to the bottom.

“Yeah, this one is locked.”

They all paused when the heard what sounded like growls and shouts. Sloane tightened her hand on the bat and looked around while Monroe knocked on the container. “Anyone in there?” he asked.

Rosalee frowned and looked around as well. “That doesn't sound like it's coming from inside.”

The growling and screeching was getting closer and Sloane quickly put her flashlight in her pocket to two hand the bat. “Because it isn't!” Around the corner came several zombified people, roaring at them and when they were spotted and rushing for them.

“Not coming one at a time!” Monroe yelled. Sloane managed to send one into the crate at the side with the bat, striking him again at the back of the head. “I got one down, dose him!” She turned and gasped when she saw Monroe was woged, having taken down another zombie. She gave him a look that could only be described as predatory and raised the bat again.

“Whoa, whoa, not me!” he said, changing back. She glared, not taking her eyes off him even as Juliette and Rosalee administered part of the injection to the fallen men.

“Hurry up!” Nick yelled, breaking her stance. He was trying to keep the woman he brought down from getting back up as she struggled and growled. “This one is waking up!”

They quickly administered the antidote to her and Rosalee pulled back the empty syringe. “Reload.”

They heard more shouting, growling and growling approaching and Juliette stood up with a tight expression. “Uh, I don't think we made enough antidote.”

They all cursed as it now seemed like zombies were coming from every direction, dozens of them. “We're not gonna be able to take them,” Nick said.

“You might have to shoot a few!” Monroe said, as they formed a tight cluster with their backs to each other.

“I can't! They're innocent victims.”

“They won't be innocent for long,” Rosalee said.

“Desperate times may call for desperate measures if we want to make it out of this,” Sloane said, though she looked gutted at the idea.

“You get the feeling we just walked into a trap?” Nick asked, glancing at her. She nodded back.

“I got a feeling we've gotta get out of here! Like, now!” Monroe shouted.

They started trying to dodge and push the zombies around rather than outright fight them. Sloane heard Nick shout. “Hey! Over here!” and saw several follow him around the corner.

“Nick!?” When she tried to follow him however, she was pushed back by another wave and forced to retreat back with the others.

“Where's Nick?” Juliette yelled, looking around.

“He led a few off, I couldn’t follow right away!” Sloane said, hand tightening on the bat.

“We have to go back for him!” she said, moving to go past her.

Monroe grabbed her first, pulling her back gently as he could. “Juliette, don't worry about Nick, okay? He's a Grimm. He can take care of himself.” There was a loud roar in the distance from some no doubt large group of zombies “Usually...”

Sloane growled under her breath and adjusted her grip again. “You three, back to the car. I’ll go see if I can find him.”

“Sloane, it’s too dangerous-”

“I said back to the car!” she shouted, her face twisted in anger and her eyes looking darker around the edges.

Monroe actually took a step back. “Okay, right, you’re a Grimm too, sorry. To the car.” He led Juliette away while Sloane turned to try and make her way through the maze again. A few times she had to strike down zombies in her path, with the bat or her fists. At one point, she broke the bat over the back of one large zombified man and cursed, throwing it away. She couldn’t risk stabbing someone. She thought she heard someone laughing above all this and tried to make her way there, but the closer she got, the thicker the zombies were. When one managed to tackle her and moved to try and sink his teeth into her neck, she managed to push his face away and dislodge him with her knees. “Dammit!” Without another choice, she maneuvered around and used one prone zombie as a step up to the top of a container. They didn’t have the reach to climb up after her, or the presence of mind to use each other for a boost up. She started running across the tops and climbing around the sides until she made it back to the car.

“Sloane! Are you okay?” Juliette asked, running up.

“A few scratches, but I’ll live,” she said, pushing her hair away. “I…I couldn’t get to Nick though. There are way more infected than we first thought, and they kept me from getting to the middle of the yard. I didn’t see Nick anywhere.”

Juliette paled and then tried to move past her. Sloane caught her though, holding her back. “Nick! Nick!”

Monroe rushed over, pulling her away firmly but gently again. “Juliette, you've got to get in the truck. Come on. It’s safer to wait there.” Sloane followed and climbed in the back with them while Monroe climbed into the driver’s seat. “Nick better hurry…”

They heard shouting and all tensed as zombies started coming from within the shipyard out, converging towards their truck. “Oh, we got trouble. Start the car!” Rosalee yelled.

The car started, but by them a swarm of pale, growling people descended on them, scratching and beating at it to try and get in or get them out. Sloane gritted her teeth as the car was rocked side to side and front to back with how they were writhing around it.

“We can't stay here,” Rosalee shouted.

“No, we can't leave! Nick is coming!” Juliette said, desperately looking out the window.

“He won't be able to get to us,” Rosalee said.

“She's right!” Monroe and Sloane said together. They glanced at one another. “We got to get out of here before they get in,” Monroe went on.

“Well, what are we gonna do... just run 'em over?” Juliette asked.

Monroe started fiddling with their gearshift. “Well, one hopes they'll move because we are.” They started forward, slowly at first, parting the mass of people. Sloane could hear a few climb on top of the car and hang on to the back. Monroe turned the corner into the ship yard and started driving through the aisles, picking up enough speed to try and shake their stowaway passengers. “How are we doing!?”

“Pretty good. Except for the one on the hood,” Rosalee said.

“And a couple up top!” Juliette added.

“I can try to roll down the window and persuade them to let go!” Sloane said.

“I got a better idea. Everyone buckle up!” Monroe ordered.

Rosalee and Juliette scrambled to do so and Sloane did after a moment of confusion. Monroe then turned a sharp corner and accelerated even more, zooming down the long isle. But as long as it was, it had an abrupt end coming up.

“Container, container!” Rosalee shouted.

“I know, I know!” he shouted back.

“This isn’t now I thought a Blutbad was going to kill me!” Sloane shouted, grabbing on to the seat.

There was a screech of breaks as Monroe slammed on them just before hitting the container. The car lurched forward, all of them held in place just by their seatbelts—which hurt a little as they dug into them—but there was a satisfying sound of three “thunks” as the three zombies went flying and smacked into the container in front of them.

There was a pause before Rosalee laughed a little. “I think it worked.”

Sloane and Juliette turned to look behind them. “Not for long!” Juliette shouted.

“They’re still on our ass!” Sloane added.

Monroe groaned but quickly reversed and then threw it forward in a turn to try and get away from them. They circumnavigated throughout the many rows of the yard between the containers, but it seemed like each path led to another group of zombies.

“Oh my God, they’re everywhere!” Monroe yelled when they had to stop again and turn to avoid another mass group. Another turn and suddenly their car hit something, jolting up once and then back down roughly enough the all had to take a moment to get their bearings.

“The hell was that?” Sloane aske, looking out her window. She saw there were several construction barriers and pylons around what appeared to be a large pile of dirt and gravel they had set up for some sort of project. “A ditch…you drove into a ditch _in a shipyard_?!” she asked incredulously.

“Is everyone okay?” Monroe asked. Rosalee and Juliette gave an affirmative and Monroe tried to hit the gas again, only for their tires to spin uselessly. “Uh oh, we're stuck!”

“Probably because we’re in a ditch!”

“Yes, I realized that, thanks,” he snapped.

“We can't stay here,” Juliette said. “We're gonna have to go up.”

He nodded. “Higher ground... let's go!” Monroe said. They all scramble out of the car, rushing for a nearby crane of some kind that created a path up three crates high. Sloane took the rear as they climbed up the neck of the crane, less wide than a side walk with nothing on either side to catch them if they tipped over, and to the crate. Looking down, the zombies had amassed around the crane and where figuring out how to climb up on their own.

“We can’t let them get up here!” Rosalee yelled.

“We need some help!” Monroe said.

“Look, calm down! At the very least, they can’t come in a swarm; they have to come single file!” Sloane said.

“But they’re coming fast!” Rosalee said as they started climbing up from the crane to them. Monroe punched the first and then managed to kick him off the container. From there it was a fight to keep the high ground as more started climbing up to them. Each was holding their own, Sloane at least glad to see the wesen could fight and Juliette could hold her own for a bit, but there was no way they were going to be able to keep them all down or give anyone the antidote like this.

Juliette was able to pull out her phone in the mess and call Hank for back up, though they she had to drop her phone at the end to beat back another zombie.

They had a moment to catch their breath and regroup when the last zombie was knocked away but more were still climbing up the crane.

“This is not getting better,” Monroe panted.

“They just keep coming!” Rosalee said.

“I’ve run out of options unless I pull my knife on them,” Sloane said.

“No, they are innocent people…just…very violent innocent people,” Rosalee said.

“Well we’re not going to be able to help _anyone_ if we get killed!”

Monroe woged again. “No one is getting killed!” He started beating back a few more, sending them over the sides. Sloane tensed again as she watched him, backing away as much as she could. Her hand went inside to her knife, but she was eyeing Monroe more than the zombies. She was thinking quickly, about how pushing him over might look like an accident. Nick couldn’t blame her for an accident…

Just then, they heard sirens nearby and they all paused to look out towards the front of the yard. Hank, Wu, and about two dozen officers in riot gear exited their vehicles. Hank was shouting orders to round the infected up in a container. It wasn’t easy, but they were herding them towards an open storage container like cowboys and cattle.

“Hank!” Juliette shouted.

He looked up to see them high on the crates and shouted back up. “Are you guys okay?”

“We’ve been better!” Sloane yelled back.

“Nick's somewhere in the yard, Hank. We have to find him,” Juliette shouted.

“All right, stay up there until we get control!”

“Like hell!” Sloane shouted back. “You three stay here! Try to figure out how to do the antidote on that many people. I’ll go help Hank and the others.”

“Sloane, are you sure?” Juliette asked.

“I don’t like sitting and waiting for anything. I also promised Kelly I’d look out for Nick, so I can’t just let him do this alone,” she said, going over to the crane and sliding down. She punched one rogue zombie that came to close to her, letting a couple of officers take him to the crate with the others, and made her way to Hank who was using his phone. She moved to go back towards the crates and Hank put a hand on her shoulder.

“Hold up. The captain is on his way.”

“Like I care, we need to go find Nick!”

“I think he knows something,” Hank said more meaningfully. Sloane paused and frowned but huffed and instead went to help wrangle a few more zombies into the crate with the others. Her frustration was mounting. She then covered the crane while the others made their way down.

Renard was there a few moments later, driving a black SUV through the chaos near to the crane. “Quick, get in the car!”

“No, we're not leaving without Nick,” Juliette shouted even as Hank ushered her to the car.

Renard sighed but spoke quickly out the window, loud over the din of the zombies but quiet enough no one else would hopefully overhear. “I followed my brother to one of the containers, where I found Nick's cell phone. My brother's gonna try to get him out of the country.”

“What?” Rosalee gasped, quickly climbing in the back.

“Why?” Sloane asked, opening the door to get in on the front passenger side this time.

Renard shook his head, either not knowing or not ready to answer in the chaos. “Let's go. We got to get to the airport.” Monroe, Hank, and Juliette worked to pile in. “Come on!” Renard shouted impatiently. When everyone was inside he took off quickly away from the shipyard, trusting his men to contain the problem.

“Okay, so what’s this about your brother kidnapping Nick?” Sloane said.

“I saw them carry the box and load it in a van,” Renard said.

“And you didn’t stop them?!”

“I was a bit busy when two men attacked me,” he bit out.

“What kind of box was it?” Rosalee asked.

Renard grimaced. “It, uh, looked like a coffin.” Everyone sucked in a breath. “My guess is they put Nick in this death state just like the others.”

“Oh, my God,” Juliette said, leaning back heavily against the seat.

“With the right paperwork, which they have, they could transport him out of the country legally, no questions asked.”

“So…that’s the blank file,” Sloane said, rubbing her temple. “The “deceased” man.”

“And this means the Baron is working for your brother?” Monroe asked.

“Yeah. All this madness was just a sideshow to distract us from what they were really after.”

“Nick,” Juliette said quietly.

“It’s either him or the key…” Sloane said

“You know,” Rosalee said slowly. “I'm... I'm not sure Nick will react the same way that the others have.”

“Because he's a Grimm,” Monroe said, picking up on her train of thought.

“They're not exactly normal. Uh, no offense, Sloane.”

“None taken. Fair call.” She said tersely.

“You…okay?” Monroe asked.

“Of course I’m not okay!” she shouted suddenly, making them all flinch back. “The son of one of the few people I actually like and respect has been kidnapped by a psychotic royal and a zombie making wesen on my watch when I promised to look out for him! On top of that, I’ve been all but useless lately because I let myself get leashed by him and you-” she pointed at Renard, “in how I usually run a hunt!”

“You aren’t useless, Sloane,” Rosalee said. “You’ve been a huge help, to us and Nick.”

“Oh, good, fantastic. All I know is in the past, a problem like this would take me a week to solve tops with some research and vigilant hunting, and instead I’ve been playing by your rules and Nick is gone!” She struck the side of the car and growled. “…Stop the car.”

“What?” Renard said, looking at her.

“Stop the car. Let me out, I’ll go do this on my own! Nothing has gone right since I tried working with all of you!” She moved to open her door despite them still moving down the highway pretty fast.

“Sloane, stop it!” Hank shouted, reaching over to grab her hand. “We’re all going to the same place, remember, you’re just going to end up behind!”

Sloane flinched and took her hand back. “Dammit…” Panting she muttered under her breath a little more brokenly. She hated her voice cracking, but the sudden bitterness and fear was settling in as she imagined Kelly’s face when she told her Nick was poisoned by a wesen and kidnapped by royals. “Kelly is never going to forgive me…”

The others exchanged a look, surprised she was losing her cool. Slowly Rosalee leaned forward in her seat until she could rest a hand on Sloane’s shoulder. Sloane tensed. “Calm down,” Rosalee said gently. “It’s not your fault. The royals and Samedi planned this together; we couldn’t have known that till now. And Nick isn’t gone. Not for good. We’re going to get him back. But not if you keep thinking you have to work on your own. Maybe that’s what got you through things in the past, but this isn’t just your fight or your problem. Nick and the rest of us have gotten as far as we have because we work together. We did the best tonight working together too.”

Sloane was quiet a moment, apparently calming down again, before she shrugged out of her touch. “You sound like a children’s cartoon show,” she said, though there wasn’t much heat to it.

Rosalee just smiled a little. “Hey, nice thing about being in a group, we all share the blame too. But again…we couldn’t have known that this was all a trap for Nick.”

They raced to the airport, Hank getting airport security on the phone to try and detain the plane, but when they got there they found two guards on the ground, apparently poisoned by Samedi, and the plane taking off in the distance even as they got out to watch it.

“Dammit!” Sloane yelled, hitting the side of the car.

Renard looked frustrated as well before turning back for the car. Juliette stopped him. “You have to do something. You stop that plane!” she said.

“There's nothing we can do. In a matter of minutes, that plane will be over international waters, where we can't touch them,” Renard said.

“Can't they scramble jets or something?” Rosalee asked.

“They won't do that unless there's a terrorist threat,” Hank said.

“They have a walking biological weapon on board, I’d call that pretty terroristic!” Sloane said, pointing towards the plane. Renard just shook his head. They all knew they wouldn’t believe them.

“Well, where are they taking him?” Monroe asked.

“Somewhere where my brother can control him... my guess is Austria.”

Everyone jumped when Juliette suddenly slapped Renard across the face. “Your family's responsible for this. I swear to God, you better get him back.”

Renard took a breath and gave her a level stare as he ground out. “I'll do everything in my power to keep Nick away from my family. But I can’t stop that plane.”

Hanks cellphone rang and he quickly answered it. “Griffin… Lock the door and stand guard. I'll send somebody down.” He put the phone away and stalked up to Rosalee. “That stuff you made works, right?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re gonna have to make a whole lot more of it.”

“What about Nick?” Juliette yelled.

“Look, they had to file a flight plan,” Renard said. “I could check with the FAA. Once we know where they're going, maybe we can intercept.”

“If we do, I’m killing Samedi. Your brother too,” Sloane said darkly.

Renard didn’t look too broken up by the idea. “In all honesty, I’m fine with that.”

“I... I'm sorry, but what about them?” Monroe asked, pointing to the two prone guards on the runway.

“It's too early to treat them,” Rosalee said. “We're gonna have to take them with us.”

\--------------

“How much of this stuff do they expect us to make?” Juliette asked, helping measure out more ingredients.

“As much as we can,” Rosalee answered.

“Yeah, but we can't deliver it one shot at a time. There's not enough time. Some of them will die before they can be treated!”

“And that’s assuming we ever had enough for everyone, there’s more than double what we expected…” Sloane added. She was helping as well in getting the ingredients prepared by chopping some of them into finer pieces, and doing a decent job from what Rosalee could see. She suspected the Grimm was trying to focus her energy into something before he exploded.

“We need a better way to do this,” Rosalee agreed.

Monroe came in with an arm full of more ingredients he managed to find. “I say if they're taking Nick to Austria, then we should go there too.”

“What? Are you serious?” Rosalee asked, taking some of the jars from him.

“Hell, yeah, I'm serious. I mean, whatever they're gonna do to Nick, they're gonna do it soon, and I don't entirely trust Captain Renard. If you recall, he's got a little of that royal blood coursing through his veins too.” He put the jars in his arms down roughly, breaking one near his fingers. “Ow! Damn it!”

Rosalee gently patted his arm as he took his hand away from the broken glass. “Just calm down, okay?”

“I'm sorry. It's just, I can't believe they took Nick... not to mention, they left us with a hell of a lot of mess to deal with.”

“I'm with you too,” Juliette said with conviction. “Let's go get him.”

Rosalee looked between them in disbelief. “This is the royal family you're talking about!” she reminded them.

“I know who we're dealing with,” Monroe said.

“No, you don’t,” Sloane said, suddenly driving the knife into the table. Everyone tensed and looked at her. “You think what they’ve done here is bad? Ha. You get over to Austria and German and even England, and the royals have their hands in everything. They’ve got informants everywhere. The moment they hear even the faintest rustling of us going over there to look for Nick in a big group, they’ll have us strung up on bogus charges of some kind. Hell, they’ll frame us for murder! It’s happened to some Grimms I’ve met. Nearly happened to me a couple of times. And we’re going to do Nick a fat lot of good in jail or awaiting trials and extraditions, especially when we have no idea where they’ve taken him before we go flying over there. Austria is a definite possibility, but there’s dozens of other Royal strongholds as well all over Europe, all over the world.”

“She’s right,” Rosalee said. “They have more money and protection than just determination is going to be able to get through.”

“It still doesn't mean we just let 'em get away with it!” Monroe said.

“I mean, if Nick doesn't do what they want, they're gonna kill him! They're never just gonna let him go,” Juliette said.

“Exactly. So the sooner we get there, the better!”

“Oh, don’t think for a second if I had any idea how to catch up to them fast I wouldn’t be at the airport already!” Sloane snapped, pulling the knife out of the table easily. “But as it is, I’m stuck here with you. So I’m making the best of it so that when we get Nick back, he’s not coming home to a horde of zombies or a mass grave!”

Monroe frowned but started looking for his phone “You know, there's a whole lot of people Nick has helped too.”

“What are we gonna do, raise an army?” Rosalee asked.

“No, just a few people who are willing to put their lives on the line for something that really matters. So you guys just, you know, keep fixing this stuff. I'm gonna make a few phone calls.” He went to the side room with his phone out while Rosalee and the others looked over the bubbling beakers and tubes.

Rosalee’s attention was then drawn to the jar Monroe had broken, where a yellow mist was rising up from the contents as it dispersed into the air. “That's it…”

“What?” Juliette asked. Sloane paused in chopping and grinding and came over and even Monroe paused in going through his contact list to look up.

“Remember what I told you about the different ways this treatment can be given?”

“Yeah. Orally, "ointmentally"...” Monroe started.

“I don’t think that’s a word. And also by shot,” Sloane finished.

“What about an inhalant?” she asked, getting excited.

“Oh, you mean we get 'em to smoke it?” Monroe said, looking both amused and a little excited as well.

Rosalee gave him an impatient look. “No, breathe it.”

“Like…an inhaler or a smoke grenade?” Sloane asked. “That’d definitely disperse the cure, but how? I don’t know if we can put a vaporizer in there…”

“There is another way,” Juliette said.

Everyone looked at her in surprise. “I ask again, how?”

“With the Williamson ether synthesis.”

“The what now?” she asked in confusion.

“It turns a liquid into a gas. Basically, it's an organic reaction which forms an ether from an organohalide and alcohol.”

“…I speak three languages, I don’t think that was any of them,” Sloane said in confusion.

Monroe looked just as perplexed but shrugged. “Uh, we got the alcohol.”

“So we just need to get them to inhale the antidote, like... like nitrous oxide,” Juliette said.

“We need to contain the gas in glass bottles,” Rosalee went on, starting to gather empty vessels.

“Yeah, or jars or anything we can break to release the gas,” Juliette agreed.

“Oh, so basically, we just create, like, a Molotov cocktail, except it doesn't explode... We hope,” Monroe said.

“Oh, okay, that I understand. God, if this is what college teaches you, I kind of wish I’d actually gone…” Sloane said, starting to help prep.

\-------------

Getting back to the ship yard, they managed to convince the cops present to let them smoke bomb the inside of the container. Monroe distracted those inside by running a riot club along the side of the crate at the other end while the rest of them threw the jars inside when the doors were open enough. Closing the doors again, they held their breath as they listened to those inside continue to growl and yowl like animals. It took several tense minutes before the noise inside died down. For a moment the police worried they were dead, but inside Sloane and the others could hear people groaning and talking like real people again. They opened the doors, and inside were some very confused, slightly scratched up people wondering what the hell had happened.

Sloane watched in surprise as they started walking out. She looked at Rosalee next to her. “…I have to admit…what you did was pretty amazing, making sure these people got cured. Most everyone was ready to give up.”

Rosalee smiled at her. “We don’t give up easily. And we’re not giving up on Nick either. He’s the priority now.”

Sloane frowned. “…You really do care about him…You and…him,” she nodded at Monroe. “I kept thinking this was all just an act to get him to not kill you, but you really care about Nick…and about these people too. If you didn’t…this just would’ve been your chance to be free of him.”

Rosalee smiled, not looking insulted. “Of course. He’s our friend, and these…were innocent people that needed our help. We help him because we care what happens to them.”

Sloane was quiet at that, not sure how to respond. Monroe came up to them then, his phone to his ear. “It's Hank,” he said.

“Does he have something?” Sloane asked quickly.

Monroe paused to listen to Hank on the phone and pulled a face. “What kind of bad news?”

“Put it on speaker,” Juliette said immediately.

“You know, maybe I should hear this first,” he said hesitantly.

“Monroe, I want to hear this,” Juliette said stubbornly.

“Okay…” He took the phone away and pressed a button on screen. “Hank, you're on speaker, so we can all hear.”

Hank took a breath they could all hear. “We received a report that the plane Nick was on went down. Now, we don't know anything more than that. We're headed out there now.”

“What?” Sloane gasped.

“Where?” was Juliette’s question.

“Juliette...” he started.

“Hank, I'm coming. Just... Just tell me where…”

Where ended up being near Mt. Cedara outside the city. They quickly piled back into Monroe’s car—a tight fit for a VW Bug—and raced out there as quick as they could. Smoke from the wreck could be seen several miles up the road. They parked near the police cars already on scene and Juliette barely waited for the car to even stop before jumping out and running towards the wreckage.

Before she could get close an officer was in her path, barring her from the scene. “No one's allowed into the area.”

Juliette, tried to get around him, but he kept blocking her. “No, you don't understand!”

“We know someone on the plane,” Monroe said.

“I'm sorry. No unauthorized personnel.”

Sloane opened her jacket to show her badge with a glare. “Am I authorized?”

“Uh…yes ma’am, I’d think so.”

“Then so are they!” she snapped.

“They're also with me,” Renard said as he and Hank exited the trees and came towards them, “so it’s fine.” The officer nodded and turned to go back to helping sort through the wreckage.

“Where's Nick?” Juliette asked immediately.

“He's not here,” Renard said quietly.

“We think he may have survived the crash,” Hank said.

“Look, he might be infected,” Renard went on. “He may not be himself. So you need to prepare yourselves.” Hanks phone rang and he moved off to the side to answer it.

Monroe looked at Rosalee worriedly. “You said if he got infected, a Grimm might react differently…”

“I'd say he reacted a lot differently,” Renard agreed.

“Good or bad?” Sloane asked.

“Depends on who he runs into.”

Hank rushed over to them after hanging up his phone again. “911 call just came in. A fight broke out at a bar about 2 miles from here. Apparently, a lot of people are getting hurt.”

Everyone exchanged worried glances at one another. “I say we start there,” Renard said. They split between his car and Monroe’s and flew out of the scene and back onto the highway. No one talked much until they reached a very rough looking bar much like one Sloane visited not too long ago. Just as they drove up, a man stumbled out.

“He's crazy! He's got a gun! There's people hurt.” Hank flashed his badge around his neck and the man brightened in relief. “Oh, you're a cop. Good! Go kill that son of bitch!” Sloane frowned at the man but pushed past him with Hank towards the door. Monroe was close on her heels but Renard held up a hand to both of them.

“Just stay here.”

“I should go with you,” Monroe said.

“And I definitely should go in there,” Sloane said.

“It may not be Nick,” Renard said, trying to stay calm.

Monroe sniffed the air deeply. “No, no, trust me. That's Nick. He’s been living with me for, you know, a while, so I know what he smells like.”

“There's something different about it now…” Rosalee said as she scented the air as well.

“What?” Hank asked worriedly.

“I can't explain it. It's... it's just different,” she said lamely.

“If it's Nick, I can help,” Juliette said as she came forward.

“This isn’t like last time,” Sloane said. “Nick was under the Musai’s spell, but otherwise still capable of higher thinking. If he’s like those other people…he might be all animal aggression now.”

“Sloane’s right,” Renard said. “Let's just figure out what we're dealing with first, okay?” The men and Sloane moved to the door to head inside.

“I'm telling you, he's not the same... be careful,” Rosalee called after.

Inside it looked like a raging bull and come through the place at happy hour. Some people were still inside, on the ground groaning and half or fully unconscious. Bottles and glasses were shattered everywhere and there was the faint smell of gunpowder in the air even the humans of the group could detect.  Hank told one man to stay down while they made their way through the bar.

“Back here,” Monroe said, following his nose.

“You can track him?” Sloane asked.

“I can try.”

“Good,” Renard said. “We've got to stop him because it's only gonna get worse.” He nodded to Monroe. “Go.” Monroe nodded and Sloane followed him out the bar with Hank behind her, leaving Renard to start work getting help for those at the bar.

In the woods, Monroe continued to sniff the air. He lost his trail once or twice but found it again soon enough. He paused again at one point, trying moving his head around this way and that as he sniffed the air. Hank’s phone rang at one point and he gave Renard an update on their search—which was where they were heading but that they had nothing to show for it.

Monroe paused again and growled in frustration. “I’m sorry, I lost it again!”

“Well find it, or—” Sloane started, but they all went quiet when they heard a high pitched scream like a young girl. They saw a house on a hill through the trees off to the side, the only source of the noise possible this close. For a moment Sloane was taken back in her mind to a very similar house, painted white and not red with a brown roof and white shutters, nestled in the woods. She knew it so well, but it made her sick thinking of it, thinking of being inside when- “No…” she took off like a shot, outstripping Monroe and Hank as she followed the echo of the scream towards the house. She barreled into the house, the door already broken. Upstairs she could hear people screaming and she raced up them to see Nick trying to beat down the door. “Nick!”

He glanced back at her and she felt a stab of fear go through her. His eyes were red where they should be white they were so blood shot, and his skin was as pale as a corpse. He grunted but then went back to pushing at the door. “No! Nick, stop!” She raced up and tried to pull him away from the door by the hand. “Stop it Nick!” He yelled at her, throwing off her hand. Not one to be stopped easily, she grabbed him around the torso to try and pull him away. Fighting her grip, he roared and then smashed them both through the door, nearly making it fly off its hinges. The door hit someone—the father she guessed—and something flew out of his grip and clattered to the ground. Monroe and Hank were right behind them as Sloane kept trying to put Nick in submission hold. With a roar Nick flipped her over and she landed hard on her back with a shout. She barely managed to roll away before he tried to strike where her face had been and she got to her feet. Monroe and Hank both tried to pin him to the wall at once, but Nick shook them off and struck both of them. The father of the house tried to hit him with something—a gun safe?—but Nick appeared to barely feel it before sending him flying across the room with one hit.

“We gotta get him outta here!” Hank yelled.

“I’m open to suggestions!” Sloane shouted back.

Hank looked around and grabbed a statue from the table next to him, hurling it towards Nick. Without even looking Nick caught it in his hand. All three of them were surprised.

“…Okay, that was a good catch, I have to admit,” Sloane said.

Nick looked at the statue and then looked at them. Hank yelled and waved his hand to get his attention. “That's right! I threw it. Come and get me!” Nick growled and all three of them quickly booked it back out the bedroom door as he gave chase.

“You go out the back. I'll lead him out the front,” Hank said. They split up, but Monroe knocked over a lamp as they were moving, causing Nick to pause on his way to the front door. “Plan's not working,” Monroe said.

“And whose fault is that?” Sloane snarled, but shoved him towards the door as they broke out in a run with Nick on their heels. She managed to slow him down by pulling down an old china cabinet in his way, letting them get out the door and around the house back to Hank quickly.

“Now what? What are we going to do?” Monroe panted.

They all jumped when there was a crash and Nick bolted back out of the house like a wild animal, his eyes on them immediately. “Keep running!” Sloane said, all three of them rushing towards a barn in the distance.

Inside there, Hank drew his gun. “What, are you gonna shoot him?” Monroe said.

“Well, unless we can find a way to trap him, I'm gonna wound him. We don’t have much time,” he replied desperately.

“Aim for the thigh,” Sloane said, fine at this point using whatever they could to keep Nick down long enough to save him.

“What about the hay loft?” Monroe said quickly. They looked up at the loft and then made their way up, figuring at least it gave them the high ground and a place to collect their thoughts. Looking around there, nothing stuck out as useful. Nick came into the barn then, huffing and puffing like a beast as he looked around for them. Monroe shook his head, trying to think. “I don't know. I mean, maybe we could...” They gasped when his foot suddenly went through the loft floor with a loud crack and Hank quickly steadied him. Looking at the hole in the floor, they all exchanged a glance and then quickly got to the other side of the loft. Hank kept his gun drawn and Sloane pulled out her knife as Nick started making their way up to them, drawn by the noise. Monroe grabbed a small pitch fork just to be safe. Nick made it up to them, growling low at them.

“Whoa! Hey, Nick! Can you hear me?” Hank said. “Can you hear me? Do you know who I am?”

“Nick, it's us, man! Don't do it. Don't do it, Nick!”

“Please, Nick…I don’t want to tell your mother we had to hurt you,” Sloane said. “Or worse…” He growled and started forward. As he stepped in the middle of the loft though, the floor gave way completely under him and he fell through.

“Oh, my God!” Monroe shouted. They rushed over to look down, seeing him in a heap among the fallen planks of wood and some straw. “Do you think we killed him?”

Nick groaned then and started moving again, and all of them sighed in relief.

“We didn't,” Hank said. “Let's close him in.” They saw a cattle gate against the wall and quickly grabbed it, hefting it between them to put over the hole as Nick started growling at them again.

“Give him points for determination,” Sloane grunted as they put the gate in place.

“He had that before the whole zombie thing. I just preferred it when it was catching a criminal, not hunting us,” Monroe said.

Once they were sure he wasn’t going to get out right away, they climbed back down and went outside to meet with Renard and the others, who Hank and called earlier.

“Where's Nick?” Renard asked.

“Inside. We have him trapped,” Hank said.

“Probably not for long,” Monroe added.

“He’s stronger than before I think,” Sloane said.

“Is he hurt?” Juliette asked worriedly.

“If he is, I don't think he knows it,” Monroe said.

“Juliette, you have to understand, Nick is more animal than man right now,” Hank said as gently as he could.

Sloane looked up when she heard footsteps coming and saw the man of the farm house coming towards them, with a gun in hand. “Where is he?” he demanded.

“Sir, we have the situation under control,” Hank said quickly, showing his badge and putting a hand on his gun out of reflex. Sloane showed her own badge as well.

“You're cops? How did you get here so fast? I just called 911,” he said in disbelief.

“We've been following the suspect. I need you to put the gun down and go back in the house,” Hank said more urgently.

“He tried to kill me and my family!”

“Is anyone hurt?” Sloane asked.

“No. But they're scared to death! This guy's insane! Who is he?”

“His name is...” Renard glanced around. “Thomas Schirach.”

“He’s been drugged, sir. He’s dangerous, but we’re trained to handle him. You’re more a danger to us, yourself and your family if you get in the middle of this than you are to him,” Sloane said calmly.

“Sir, give me the gun and go back in the house,” Hank said, nodding in agreement with her.

“I'm not giving you my gun,” he said. “I'll go back inside, but my wife and kids are in there. And if this maniac gets out on the loose again, I...” There was a series of thuds and grunts growing louder from inside the barn.

“You, inside, now!” Sloane ordered him, pointing to the house. The man turned and quickly went back up the path with his gun in hand.

“All right, we're gonna go in,” Renard said, glancing at the barn where they could still hear Nick struggling. He looked back at Rosalee and Juliette. “Stay back... And just make sure that thing is ready,” he said, nodding to the three needle syringe in Juliette’s hand. Monroe, Renard, Sloane and Hank all went back into the barn. Through thin light filtering through the boards they could see Nick’s shadow as he moved inside, battering up against the wall and cracking the boards with its force.

“Let's take him,” Renard said.

“Uh... Not like this,” Monroe suggested, gesturing at himself. “I tried.” There was more banging from Nick inside but Sloane braced herself more for when Monroe and Renard both woged into their wesen forms. Hank was staring at Renard in shock.

“You okay?” Renard asked.

“I wish I could do that,” Hank said wistfully.

“Hank, no. I was just starting to like you,” Sloane said, in disappointment.

It was then that Nick broke through, apparently having used a shovel to help crack the boards open in a moment of higher thinking. He tossed the shovel down immediately though and rushed at them. That started an all-out four on one brawl. If Nick focused on one of them, the other three tried to get hits in and keep that one from being hurt or killed by Nick. Whatever they had at hand was used as a weapon, from boards to farm tools. Nick was still tossing them around like ragdolls though.

As he rolled out from being thrown again, Hank pulled his gun. “Nick! Nick, don't do it. I swear to God. Don't make me shoot you, please!” Nick growled a little, looking ready to advance. Sloane looked between them, wracking her brains for what to do. She then noticed Rosalee and Juliette sneaking up behind him. “I swear to God!”

“Nick, behind you!” Juliette yelled. He whirled around and she stuck him in the stomach with the syringe. He shouted and then back handed her away from him with a snarl. Sloane rushed up latched on to Nick again while he was distracted, making him shout as she pulled and maneuvered him around with a grip around his neck and the other on his arm, digging into the nerves. Rosalee took the opportunity to push the syringe in further and inject him. He raged again, pulling it out and trying to shake Sloane off, scratching at her arm and waving the syringe around wildly. She barely kept him from stabbing her in the eye with it. Finally though she felt him start to grow sluggish in her hold. She helped him move down to his knees and then slowly let go and laid him down on his side. “Easy there…” she said softly, like calming a darted animal. “Easy, we got you.”

Hank helped Juliette up and they all watched as Nick started to shiver and shake. “Is it working?” Juliette asked.

“I think so,” Rosalee said. Nick started groaning as he kept shivering and shaking.

“We should give him another shot just in case,” Renard said.

“We gave him everything we had,” Rosalee said. “We just have to get him back to the shop.”

“Well, let's get him back there fast... let's go!” Monroe said. They scrambled to get Nick into the van Renard brought just as the police started pulling up with lights and sirens blaring. Juliette and Monroe were watching over Nick in from the back seat. “He's still shaking,” Juliette said worriedly.

“I hope we're not too late,” Monroe said.

Juliette pressed her fingers to his wrist and frowned more. “He's really cold to the touch... Guys, his pulse is slowing down, and it's getting weaker. Are we losing him? Maybe we should try to keep him warm.” Rosalee grabbed a jacket and offered it to them and they draped it over Nick. “Nick, can you hear me?” He opened his eyes and looked at her, but seemed to be half-conscious and delirious.

“We need to get him to the shop before it's too late,” Rosalee said.

Monroe looked at Renard. “Your brother is responsible for this, right?”

Renard took a breath but nodded. “Yeah.”

“And they didn't find his body on the plane?”

“No.”

“Well, I don't know how you guys handle family issues, but I hope you're not gonna let him get away with this!”

“I’m definitely not,” Sloane growled. “He and Samedi are on my kill list.”

“We did find Samedi’s body at the crash site,” Renard said.

“Oh. Good. Your brother just moved up a space then.” Renard didn’t defend his brother and in fact looked fine with the idea.

They got to the shop and got Nick inside, setting him down on the chaise lounge to rest. Sloane sighed ash she sat on a chair while Rosalee and Juliette started work on another dose of antidote. She looked at her jacket and frowned. “Son of a…”

“What is it?” Monroe said.

“When Nick wakes up, tell him to clip his nails! He tore through my jacket!” She showed the sleeve of her jacket, which was shredded from Nick pulling at her arm while she held him. The others shook their heads a little and chuckled. Sloane pulled the jacket off and hissed. Looking down, there were several jagged lines in her skin that were raw and bloody that she didn’t see through the jacket’s black leather. “And my skin a little bit too…”

“You need a first aid kit?” Rosalee asked, immediately worried.

Sloane paused and looked around. “Pretty sure most of us do…Keep working on the antidote; I’ve got my own in my car we can use.” She stood and headed back out, having left her car at the spice shop earlier.

“…Did she just offer to share her first aid kit with all of us? I mean, wesen included?” Monroe asked. “I’m just not sure I heard her right.”

Rosalee smiled a little. “She’s…not that bad at heart I think.”

“She tried to kill us the first time we met!”

“And wasn’t our first instincts with Nick to attack him or run?” Monroe frowned but couldn’t deny it was. “You said it before, it might be in how she was raised. The same can be said of how we were raised to fear Grimms. But that doesn’t mean we can’t work past it.”

“Wait…Sloane tried to kill you?” Juliette asked.

Sloane returned with her first aid kit then, which was an odd amalgamation of modern practicalities—Band-Aids and bandages and medical tape and tubes of antiseptic—mixed in with old home remedies or possibly magical concoctions—pots and jars that smelled like oils and spices from all over the world. She used a little bit of antiseptic and something from a pot that smelled like rose oil and cloves on her scratches, wrapping them in gauze and tape. She helped Hank out with a split lip and a gash above his eye, but let him help Renard and Monroe.

By the time they were done, Rosalee was finished with a final dose of the antidote. They administered it and sat back, feeling both hopeful but scared that there was nothing more they could do. Renard went back to the precinct to help deal with the aftermath while they waited. They didn’t have to wait too long before Nick started moving, but he was flailing again, as if having a nightmare. Just to be safe, the got his hands secured to the frame with Hank’s handcuffs.

“Well…on the bright side, he doesn’t look like literal death anymore,” Sloane said, noting the healthier color in his cheeks. “…Is anyone else hungry?”

“Starving,” Rosalee said, laughing a little.

“Is any place still open?” Hank asked.

“Believe it or not, there is a 24 hour Chinese place a few blocks over.”

“24 hours?”

“Yes. It’s a, um…special part of town, but their eggrolls are delicious. And they deliver,” Monroe said with a smile.

“Sounds fantastic,” Sloane said.

They ordered in food, sitting and continuing to tend to their wounds. Rosalee helped treat a cut on Monroe’s forehead and Sloane eyed them as they playfully bantered with each other.

“I mean, if the royals are going to this extent to try to get a Grimm…If they're willing to do what they did, there's got to be some serious stuff in the works.”

“Knowing the royals, none of it is good,” Sloane said, expertly picking up a piece of sweet and sour pork with her chopsticks.

“Nick, can you hear me?” They all paused and looked over at Juliette, who’d kept a vigilant watch on Nick. “Hey, he's waking up.” Everyone put their things down and walked over.

“Nick! Can you hear us?” Monroe asked.

“What's going on?” he asked groggily. Juliette reached up to his wrists, pressing her fingers down. “What are you doing?”

“Um... Checking your pulse,” she said, glancing at everyone.

“Why?”

“That's got kind of a... Long answer attached to it,” Monroe said delicately.

“What's going on? Why am I handcuffed?” He looked up at his wrists in confusion.

“We, um... We didn't want you to fall over,” Hank said as he moved to unlock the cuffs.

“Or smack someone,” Sloane added.

“O... Kay,” He sat up slowly and winced with a grunt as he felt over his head. “That is a bad headache…How'd I get here?”

“We... Brought you,” Juliette said simply.

He sat up again and grunted, looking confused. “I'm really sore. Kind of everywhere.”

“But you look a lot better,” Monroe said.

“A lot better,” Rosalee agreed.

“Understatement,” Hank said.

 “And your attitude is much improved too,” Sloane said.

Nick frowned and then got a better look at all the scrapes and bruises they had on them. “Were you all in an accident?”

“Of a sort…”Monroe said slowly.

“You don't remember anything?” Hank asked.

Nick looked at him and then down at his leg. “You got your cast off…”

“Yeah, I did. You remember that.”

“I remember you saying you were going to….” Nick said, confusion growing.

“What's the last thing you remember?” Sloane asked, suddenly offering him a glass of water. Nick took it in surprise, looking at her bandaged arm.

“Uh, I'm not really sure...”

“We were at the shipping yard,” Monroe prompted.

“Yeah, I remember that. We were trying to stop what was happening... And you had the medicine,” he nodded to Rosalee. “But we got separated, and I was chasing somebody...”

“Baron...” Hank started.

“Samedi,” he said quickly. “The guy with the hat.”

“The hat dude. You got it,” Monroe said with a smile.

“I was chasing him. And then we fell. And I found a passport with my photo. But somebody else's name... Thomas something. And that's pretty much it. I must've gotten hit…And I guess you guys found me and brought me here, right?” It was quiet as everyone looked at one another, not sure how to explain the entirety of what happened last night. “Or maybe not. Am I leaving something out?”

“A lot of stuff—” Sloane started, but then everyone started talking at once. They all paused, realizing they couldn’t tell it all together at once.

“I think Juliette should go,” Rosalee said.

“O... Kay,” she said hesitantly.

Nick looked suddenly worried and guilty. “I blew it, didn't I? I screwed it up and they got away?”

“No, you didn’t blow it,” Sloane said. Nick looked at her in surprise, not expecting the gentle words. “We all kind of blew it. There was…a lot more going on that we didn’t know.” She glanced at Rosalee. “It’s no one’s fault…” Rosalee smiled a little.

“There's much more to it than that,” Juliette went on.

“So just tell me,” Nick said.

Juliette hesitated before grasping his shirt and pulling it up. “He... got you. Like he got the others. See?” She gently pulled up his shirt and Nick looked down in shock to see two markings from three needles, and then back up to the others in horror.

What proceeded was a long explanation of what they knew about what happened to Nick and his activities last night. Nick started pacing, a little shaking at first but his movements getting more natural as he started getting all his faculties back.

“At least nobody got really hurt,” Monroe said. Sloane and Rosalee gave him a look. “I mean, really hurt... Badly. “

“You scared a few people,” Rosalee said.

“Oh, yeah, you definitely did that,” Hank sighed.

“Well, it's not like you knew what you were doing, Nick,” Juliette said. “You don't even remember.”

Nick paused and sighed in frustration. “Being under the influence isn't a very good defense.”

“Under the influence of what you were under the influence of... that's different,” Hank said.

“He’s right. I mean, thirty people at least also went through what you did last night,” Sloane said. “Or at least something very close to it.”

“How are we gonna explain it?” he asked.

“You don't have to,” Monroe said. “We sort of had it explained to us in a very physical way, which I don't think you really wanna share with anybody else.”

Nick frowned again. “I'm really sorry…”

“Nick, you didn't know,” Rosalee said.

Nick looked at Sloane’s bandaged arm, a little blood on the gauze, like scolded dog. She smiled jokingly. “Get me a new jacket we’ll call it even.”

His lips twitched but he still looked guilty and agitated.

“Look, I think that after everything you've gone through tonight you need a lotta sleep. So... You should come home with me now and get it,” Juliette said.

“Agreed,” Monroe said.

“I think we could all use a rest,” Sloane said. “And If I’m saying that, we probably needed it a while ago...”

Juliette walked over and embraced Nick’s side, Nick putting an arm around her back. “Thank God it's over,” she sighed.

“I'm just glad I didn't kill anybody...”

“We’re all glad about that,” Sloane said.

Tiredly they all split up and Sloane drove back alone to her motel room. Once there she took a shower, then redressed her scratches—which were already considerably better thanks to Grimm medicine—and fell into bed to take a long nap through the morning.

She was woken up by her phone ringing not in its usual alarm but an actual ring tone. It was later in the afternoon she saw by the sun and the clock on the nightstand. Grunting, she pressed talk. “Hello?”

“Sloane? Hey, you, uh…We need to meet at the Spice Shop,” Hank said.

She groaned. “Oh God, what now?”

“It’s not something I should really say on the phone, especially here at the precinct…”

“Bad?”

“Kinda, yeah.”

“More zombies?” she groaned again.

“No, not that bad…not for us anyway. It’s about Nick.”

Sloane sighed and got up. “Okay, I’ll be there in like…20 minutes.”

“See you then.” They hanged up and Sloane got redressed and back out to her car again.

She parked near the shop and was surprised when Rosalee let her in automatically. “Hey. We’re just waiting on Juliette.” She led her back to the side room once more where Hank, Renard, and Monroe were waiting.

“What’s this about?”

“They haven’t said yet, just that it’s a big problem…”

Sloane glanced at Hank who was tired as the rest of them but tightlipped about what was going on. “…Something about last night,” Sloane said. “Something’s gone wrong. And it’s about Nick.”

Renard eyed her and smiled, though there wasn’t much humor behind it. “Why is it Grimms make natural detectives…?”

“But he’s okay, we cured him,” Monroe said. “He’s still okay, right?”

“Juliette said so,” Hank said. “It’s not about his…health. It’s about what he did last night.”

“The farm guy still believes its ‘Thomas Shirach’ that attacked him, doesn’t he?” Sloane asked.

“It’s before that…”

Sloane frowned. She doubted Nick did anything in the woods while they were tracking him, so that left…“The bar?”

Hanks sighed and rubbed his forehead. “I was gonna wait till Juliette was here…”

“Might be best just to start,” Renard said. “She might figure it out at this rate.”

Hank took a deep breath. “Last night was overall good…we saved a lot of people and while there’s been injuries, none of those infected were killed and the civilians didn’t kill anyone.”

Sloane frowned, not liking that wording, while the others were all looking perplexed. “That…sounds pretty great to me,” Rosalee said.

“Yeah, we did a great job. Go team!” Monroe said with a little mock enthusiasm.

“There was however one casualty,” Hank said and everyone grew quiet. “A guy…at the bar we tracked Nick to died. More than likely by Nick’s hands, given the injuries.”

Everyone gasped and Rosalee covered her mouth in shock. “…So?” Sloane asked.

Hank looked at her. “He killed someone!”

“He’s a cop and a Grimm, you’re telling me it’s the first time?” she shot back.

“It’s different this time; this guy didn’t do anything to Nick to warrant an attack! He was probably defending himself. He was just there. Wrong place, wrong time, but Nick killed…”

Sloane frowned and sighed. “Okay, okay. Point taken…He’s not going to like that.”

“Which is why we have to figure out how to keep his name out of this,” Renard said. “Build him an iron tight alibi.”

“But it wasn't his fault!” Monroe exclaimed. “I mean, you saw him. He was trying to kill us. I mean, not us personally... Generally speaking.”

“Not a great defense,” Hank sighed.

“You know what you're asking us to do?” Rosalee asked.

Renard shrugged. “Nothing I haven't already done.”

“Not my first time lying to police either,” Sloane said as they heard a knock at the door. Rosalee went to answer it again and led Juliette in. “Hey!” Everyone was silent and she grew even more worried. “What's the problem?”

They hesitated before Renard spoke up frankly now that the others already knew. “One of the men that Nick fought at the bar has died.”

Juliette gaped in horror. “Oh, no…”

“He wasn't himself,” Monroe said quickly.

“It doesn't matter. You can't defend what you can't explain,” Hank said again.

“So Nick is a murderer…” Juliette asked, looking around as if hoping they’d tell her different.

“Technically,” Sloane said. “But then, so am I from certain perspectives.” She glanced at Monroe and Rosalee.

“But... So far, no one knows Nick was in the bar,” Hank said, getting back on topic.

“The man responsible for the death has been identified as Thomas Schirach,” Renard said.

“Which works for me, because I don't think we can blame Nick for what happened,” Rosalee said. “He was poisoned. He would've died.”

“And he definitely wasn’t acting like himself,” Sloane agreed. “I may not have known him as long as all of you, but I call him “bleeding heart” for a reason. And that’s why I’m worried…this is going to hurt him if he finds out in more than just his reputation.” Everyone nodded in agreement, knowing Nick would be gutted if he found out.

“As long as they're looking for Thomas Schirach, Nick is in the clear,” Renard went on. “Ironically, the false identity my brother created to get Nick out of the country is working in our favor.”

“What if they see Nick in the surveillance recordings?” Juliette asked worriedly.

“So far, none has been found,” Renard replied. Sloane arched her eyebrows, wondering about that. “Two Detectives have been assigned to the case. From the police reports, they're gonna know that there were two civilian women with me that night, and they're gonna wanna talk to all of us.”

“I know what we should tell them,” Rosalee said.

“And it is definitely not the truth,” Monroe interjected.

“Hank, are you good with this?” Juliette asked suddenly. Everyone looked to Hank, who they knew was a good, upstanding detective and not the sort to lie about a murder investigation.

Hank took a breath. “I'm not good with Nick going to prison for something he didn't even know he was doing. You heard him. He doesn't remember anything.”

“If he did I’d be more worried about how it would effect him to be honest,” Sloane said.

“Okay, okay. So we are all going to lie to protect Nick,” Juliette said, still amped up and worried. “What happens if he finds out?”

“Hopefully he throws us a little party,” Monroe said.

“Probably not,” Sloane said. “He’s the annoyingly noble type…”

“He's not going to find out,” Renard said bluntly. “At least, not for a little while. Now look, we all have to agree on three things. We were chasing down infected suspects, one of them was identified as Thomas Schirach, and you two were there because you had a treatment that was effective.”

“See? Not so bad. Some of it's true,” Monroe said, trying to lighten the mood.

“The best and easiest lies to remember rely heavily on the truth,” Sloane said. It sounded like she did have a lot of experience in that area when she spoke so sagely.

Renard nodded in agreement. “Now we have to decide on the details. Because that is how you get caught.”

\-------------------------

They schooled each other in the lie they came up with for more than an hour—Sloane giving tips on how to make sure it felt credible but not hokey or practiced—and then separated again. They had the rest of the day to rest luckily, and Sloane went in the next day to the precinct. She kept going through the programs, trying to make sure she understood them.

It was while she was doing this that two other detectives walked up to her. “Um, Detective Larson?”

She looked up. “Yes?”

“Hi, we haven’t gotten to introduce ourselves with everything that’s been going on. I’m  
Detective Keith Bauer,” one man said, offering his hand.

“And I’m Detective Alex Holtby.”

Sloane smiled personably and shook their hands. “Nice to meet you both. I, uh…have an idea this might not be entirely just to introduce yourselves.”

“No, I’m afraid not. We’re looking into an incident at a bar last night, the one you apparently went to with Detective Griffin while chasing a suspect?”

“I heard about that. Someone got killed?” she asked with convincing moderate interest and worry.

“Yeah.”

“What can I do to help?”

“Well, we were more curious about why you were at the shipyard already purportedly. With, uh, two women that ended up at the bar later with the captain.”

“Well, we were investigating the masses of people turning violent the other day. Miss Calvert had actually seen something like this before, some kind of virulent toxic infection that…attacks the nervous system? Have you talked her to her yet?”

“Not yet, no,” Holtby said.

“Well, she and Miss Silverton knew more about it than I did as far as what caused it. And they had a cure. Apparently it’s more common in tropical regions and the cure is an old folk remedy or something. All natural believe it or not. Anyway, they contacted the Captain about it and managed to provide some evidence they knew what they were talking about. Documented cases and the like. So he Okayed them to help us. We managed to track down one likely location where we thought some of the infected might be hanging out.”

“The shipyard?”

“Yes, the car of one of the first infected individual Officers Wu and Franco encountered, Richard Mulpus, was found close to the shipyard. Apparently they tend to flock together and something attracted them there. We figured it was as good a place to start as any. We obtained our warrant and searched the area in hopes of administering the treatment if we found more infected individuals, but it ended up there were many more than we thought and were pinned down until back up arrived and managed to wrangle them into a container. Then we managed to figure out how better to get the cure out to everyone.”

“Gas bombs?” he asked, obviously having heard.

“Something like that. Again, I don’t understand the science behind it…I’m just glad it worked.”

They nodded. “But you were also told you were at the site of a plane crash later, and the bar…”

“Yes. Using records, we determined that the cause of this outbreak was likely Thomas Schirach.” She brought up the death certificate on screen, this time with a different picture attached. “Mr. Schirach was pronounced dead mysteriously several days ago and was about to be transported back home to Austria when he purportedly came back to life in an “aggressive state” and escaped. From what we know, he had been taking a tour of several tropical islands before coming here for business. He must’ve somehow spread this toxin around to others. He was found apparently dead again in the next county, and was on that plane to head home. We were hoping to confirm what Miss Calvert and Miss Silverton said using him, but missed the plane. Then we heard it crashed.”

“He apparently came back to life again?” Baur said dubiously. “I mean, we have testaments from the pilots that the body in the travel coffin on board apparently “rose up” and started fighting with someone in back…But we thought he might’ve just been concussed from the crash.”

Sloane shrugged. “I’d be just as disbelieving if I hadn’t been chased up a crane by a group of crazed people that looked dead, trust me. We suspected he was “alive” and moving through the forest so we tried searching the area. Apparently he could still move fast enough to get miles away. We found the bar later and called the captain when it looked like someone had torn through it. Likely Schirach…So I see why you’re interested him. But he wasn’t at the scene. We managed to follow him through the woods, to a family residence on a farm.”

The nodded. “Yes, we spoke with the family. The father of the house said that there were police on scene already when he went outside to check…several people actually. Including a few women.”

She nodded back. “That was us. Well, aside from Detective Burkhardt. Nick got roughed up at the shipyard worse than us so we made him go home. We managed to get Schirach out of the house and to the barn, but then he busted through and ran off deeper into the woods. Without a search dog, we were having a tough time of it and it was too late by the time we could call for one. We still don’t know where he is.”

“I see…And you don’t know anything else about this Schirach?”

“I’m afraid all I know is what I managed to find searching for him in the databases. I don’t think I have more than you do right now.” The detectives nodded, frowning a bit. Sloane tried to smile jokingly. “I have to say, I’ve only been in Portland a few days and it’s definitely not boring…Is it always like this?”

Holtby laughed. “Why, regretting the transfer already?”

Sloane smiled. “No…Eureka was a ghost town in comparison to this though. Metaphorically speaking.”

“Well, don’t worry; it should get a little quieter now. Just regular burglaries and run of the mill homicides to worry about.”

“Not sure if that’s a relief or a disappointment…” she said lightly. The other detectives chuckled.

“Thanks for letting us talk to you,” Bauer said.

“Not a problem, sorry I couldn’t help you out more.”

The nodded and parted ways and Sloane sighed. Her story should match Hanks in all the important enough ways that no one suspected anything, but be told differently enough it didn’t sound like they’d planned it out. All they had to do now was wait it out.

Unfortunately, Baur and Holtby had the excellent ability of going to Juliette’s house when Nick was there and questioning her there. Thus, trying to protect Nick from the truth lasted about three days in total. And being the “bleeding heart Grimm” Sloane knew he was, he wanted to turn himself in. Hank called her about it and she rushed down to the parking lot to meet him. When Nick drove in and then came marching towards them, it was Hank that spoke first.

“You can't do this,” he said darkly.

“Get out of my way, Hank,” Nick said, obviously emotional.

“I'm already in the way, and so are the rest of us. We made a decision. You were not in good shape. You had no idea what you were doing.”

“I've heard it all, Hank,” he spat.

“And it’s true,” Sloane shot back. “You didn’t know what you were doing; you were not yourself at all.”

“Don’t you start!” he snapped. Sloane glared at him.

“You tried to kill me, Nick,” Hank said seriously, making him freeze. “You tried to kill Monroe and the Captain and Sloane. And you would have had we not worked together to take you down. And ask Juliette how it felt to get hit by you. Now, you wanna turn yourself in, go ahead. But you're going to do it alone.”

Nick hesitated, still turned towards the stairs.

“Except you aren’t alone,” Sloane said suddenly. Nick looked at her and she sighed. “As much as I hate to say it…you chose well when it came to those you trust. I thought for sure a fuchsbau and a blutbad would turn on you the second they could. I thought they were just helping you because they were scared of what you…we are. And they had a great opportunity here to be rid of you, they could’ve let you go to Austria or let you take the fall for this. Instead, everyone came together to think of a way to rescue you. The blutbad was talking about going to Austria to find you, standing up to the royals if need be. Juliette felt the same way. Rosalee made sure you got that cure. Renard organized us to make sure you were found and cured and now to make sure you don’t get sentenced for a crime you only committed because you were literally _out of your mind_. You…have good friends.”

Nick was quiet, looking down. “…Good friends lie to the police about murders?”

“No, great friends do that,” Sloane said meaningfully, folding her arms. Nick frowned at her and she sighed. “They convinced me the best way to get you back was working together. I was ready to go out and do it myself, but I had no way of knowing where they were taking you… But in the end, they were right because there is no way in hell I could’ve done anything like this on my own…And that’s the first time I’ve ever admitted that. Mostly because it’s the first time in a long while I didn’t _have_ to handle something on my own.” She looked at him. “I’m still not sold on the whole “wesen can be friends thing”. I still somewhat think the other shoe is going to drop, let’s be honest. But they are _your_ friends, and you…are lucky they care about you as much as they do. Hank is your friend. Juliette is your _girlfriend_. I’m…eh, I don’t know what we are,” she admitted. “But I don’t want you in jail for a crime you had no control over. You do this, you’re screwing over the guys who were willing to risk _everything_ to save you and now keep you out of jail. Honor is good, I believe in honor, but this is not going to effect just you negatively.”

Nick was still listening, looking down before turning. “You don’t know me at all, so don’t bother trying to manipulate me,” he said, heading for the stairs.

Sloane sighed. “That wasn’t exactly what I was trying to do this time…” She jumped when Hank put a hand on her shoulder.

“It was a good speech,” he said with a small smile.

Sloane smiled and scratched at the side of her jaw, actually a little embarrassed. “Yeah, well…you survive a zombie apocalypse with some people; it does make you think…a tiny bit.” She looked after Nick. “I guess it’s up to Renard to convince him now…”

“The captain can be pretty persuasive…” Hank said.

“I know that firsthand,” she said blandly.

Hank nodded and sighed. “All we can do now is wait and see.”

Sloane paused and glanced at him. “I could go for some coffee in the meantime.”

He chuckled. “I think you might have a good idea…”

 

**Author's Note:**

> So, long chapter this week. There will be an original case next week! I'm still trying to work out a schedule, but I'm going to try for at least one chapter a month.
> 
> And thank you again very much, GreenGoth, for the lovely comment! I forgot to mention I was about to update in my reply, hope you enjoy.


End file.
